The York University Lions men's volleyball team welcomed the No. 8 nationally-ranked McMaster Marauders to home court Sunday afternoon and, after a tough match for both sides, it was ultimately the Marauders who came out victorious, winning the match 3-1.
Heading into the match, the Marauders sat first in the OUA West Division and are the five-time defending OUA champions, while the Lions were tied for first in the OUA East. The Marauders improved to 14-1 with the win and the Lions dropped to 10-5.
Andrew Tauhid got the ball rolling with an ace on the first serve of the set. This was immediately followed by a point for the Marauders, which foreshadowed the rest of the set. The Lions were just behind the Marauders 16-13 at the first set technical time out. However, the Marauders stepped up their game in the second half, earning an additional nine points to the Lions' four to win the set 25-17.
The Lions came back with the intention to redeem themselves in the second set, and redeem themselves they did. The led 16-10 at the technical timeout and followed up the second set with some big plays from
Andrew Shotbolt,
Spencer Dakin Kuiper and
Tyler Covach along with a service ace from
Patrick Jensen allowed the Lions to continue to grow their lead over their opponents. The Lions finished with a big win over the Marauders of 25-16, tying the match score 1-1.
The Lions started to lead again in the third set, but the Marauders were able to catch up and tie the score 13-13. At the technical timeout the Lions had reasserted a small lead of 16-14. It was a closely fought battle through to the end of the set, exceeding the usual 25-point game. In the end, it was the Marauders who claimed the set with a final score of 28-26 to take the lead in the match 2-1.
The fourth set was crucial for the Lions. The Marauders started the set with a small lead, but kills by
Andriy Sozanskyy, Shotbolt, Tauhid and Dakin Kuiper allowed the Lions to momentarily tie the score at 4-4. The Lions took the lead a few points later, at one point having a six-point lead. The Lions led 16-10 at the technical timeout.
The Marauders closed this gap, coming within two points of the Lions before tying the score 22-22. In the race for the few final points, a couple of mistakes on the Lions' part allowed the Marauders to get ahead and win 25-22 and claim the match.
Leading the Lions in scoring was Shotbolt with 16 points (14 kills, four assisted blocks). Tauhid had the most digs for the Lions, finishing with eight.
Andrew Richards earned the most points for the Marauders with 17 (11 kills, one service ace, four solo blocks, two assisted blocks), followed closely by Matt Passalent with 16.5 (15 kills, one solo block, one assisted block). Leading the team in digs was David Doty with 10.
The Lions will be looking to get back into the win column on Friday when they face the Nipissing Lakers at the Tait McKenzie Centre. Match time is set for 8pm.
