MARAUDERS SWEEP GRYPHONS TO CLINCH TOP SPOT IN OUA
The top team in the country continues to chug along, as the McMaster Marauders continued their spotless streak — and clinched the top spot in the OUA — with a win over the Guelph Gryphons on Thursday.
Photo by Rick Zazulak
Hamilton, Ont. - The top team in the country continues to chug along, as the McMaster Marauders continued their spotless streak — and clinched the top spot in the OUA — with a win over the Guelph Gryphons on Thursday.
McMaster extended its winning streak to 16 games while notching its 11th straight sweep, as the Marauders cruised to a 3-0 decision at the Gryphons' expense. The CIS no. 1-ranked Marauders moved to 16-1 on the season, and cannot mathematically be caught for the top spot, with just three matches remaining in their conference schedule. Guelph, meanwhile, continued their freefall in the conference standings, and have now lost eight of their last 10 matches to fall to 8-9 on the year.
On a fairly subdued offensive night, Stephen Maar led the Marauders with a total of 11 points, including eight kills and three aces. Veteran setter Austin Campion-Smith continued his league-leading creative pace, tallying 30 assists over the course of the match's three sets.
The visitors began the match well, and posed a serious threat to the Marauders throughout the opening set. Middle Marc Wilson — who finished the match with a game high of 13 points — was a constant threat on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, running the first tempo efficiently and blocking well. But as good as Wilson was, McMaster began to exert pressure along the wings, and ultimately saw their visitors blink first to win the first set by the minimum two points.
Having evaded the early challenge, the Marauders found their game in the second and never truly looked back. Their offence came alive, powering McMaster to a team hitting percentage of .320 in the set, while the Gryphons ground to a halt and were a flat zero with eight kills versus eight errors. Steady from the service line, and outplaying their opponents consistently in the rallies, McMaster eased to a 25-18 decision in the second.
While their offence slowed somewhat in the third, McMaster's defence stepped up even further, and held Guelph to a negative percentage with just five kills versus nine attacking errors. The combination of Maar and fellow outside Jori Mantha were terrorizing the Gryphons from the service line, and McMaster saw out a routine set by a 10-point margin.
