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Game Recap: Volleyball (M) | 11/27/2015 9:55:00 PM | Posted by: Adam Ali, Sports Information Assistant
MARAUDERS PREVAIL OVER Gaels IN BATTLE OF CIS RANKED SQUADS


KINGSTON, Ont. (November 27,2015) - The No. 10 Queen's Gaels men's volleyball fell to the undefeated No. 1 McMaster Marauders 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-23) on Friday evening at the Athletics and Recreation Centre.

In a battle of the top squads in the OUA conference, with just one loss between them thus far in the regular season, the top-ranked Marauders used a potent offense that worked at a formidable .515 efficiency, collecting an average of just under 15 kills per set for the win.

The Gaels garnered a hitting percentage of .269, and were led by Marko Dakic (Mississauga, Ont.) who tallied 10 kills, two aces and 12.5 points in the loss. Jamie Wright (Kingston) tallied 27 assists, and Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) added eight kills and four digs for Queen's.

Stephen Maar collected 15 kills to help the Marauders record their 10th straight victory. McMaster has not lost a set since its opening match of the season.

GAME FLOW
The No. 1 team in the nation showed its offensive prowess right from the beginning of the opening set, jumping out to a 16-7 lead at the technical timeout. The Marauders used their power and blocking ability to keep the Gaels out of step throughout the set, and a big kill from Danny Demyanenko off an errant serve-receive from the hosts put a stamp on a dominant first set win.

Down 18-12 in the second set, the men put together a 3-0 run to bring themselves within three. The squads then exchanged four-straight service errors, and the lead remained unchanged heading into the latter half of the set. Queen's was able to stay with the Marauders, point for point, but could not string together a run to tie the set, putting McMaster in the driver's seat heading into the third set of play.

After a close second set, the Marauders were looking to stymie any hopes of a thrilling comeback bid by the hosts. Using some hard hitting that tested the Gaels blockers, McMaster quickly accelerating to a 6-1 lead, which prompted a timeout from Head Coach Brenda Willis.

The break seemed to spark the hosts, who sliced the Marauder lead down to two. An ace from Matt Golas (Toronto) cut the deficit to a single point. Then, a kill from Dakic and a block from Will Hoey (Brampton, Ont.) helped the men draw even on two occasions leading up to the technical timeout, where the visitors held a 16-15 lead.

The squads then proceeded to trade the lead through to the final moment of the set, which saw the hosts up 23-22. After a great serve from Tomlinson forced an immediate overpass from the Marauders, the Gaels were unable to take advantage, and a rotation error soon after gave the guests a match point. McMaster mad good on their opportunity to close out the match, handing Queen's its first loss since the second game of the season.

FINAL SAY
"McMaster plays a tempo and a power game that we don't face in the rest of the league," said Willis. "There's a reason their number one in the country. And so it took us a set and a half to really just get comfortable with what was coming at us. I think the gap between us and them is closer to what happened in the third set. I don't think our serving was consistent or aggressive, and we also didn't pass to the setter as much as we wanted to. That is also a credit to McMaster's tough serving. We are better than we showed but not as good as them right now."

BY THE NUMBERS
6- Queen's six-game winning streak, which came to an end against McMaster on Friday
28- McMaster has won 28 sets in a row beginning from their five-set win over Waterloo in October
14- Both teams committed 14 service errors each throughout the match