The York University Lions men's volleyball team will travel to Hamilton, Ont., on Saturday to take on the McMaster Marauders in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) quarterfinals with a berth in the Final Four Championships on the line.
 
The game will take place at 7pm at the Burridge Gymnasium and can also be seen live online on OUA.tv.
 
The Lions come into the playoffs as the fourth-seed in the OUA East Division with an 8-10 record. After opening the season with two losses, the Lions alternated wins and losses for 11-straight games, before going on a three-game losing streak at the beginning of February. They righted their ship last weekend, winning back-to-back games against the third-seeded Toronto Varsity Blues and Trent Excalibur, to head into the playoffs with a mini two-game win streak. Despite their inconsistent play, the Lions have shown flashes of brilliance this year and seem to have the tools necessary to pull off an upset against the favoured Marauders.
 
The Marauders, who enter the playoffs ranked fourth in the country, finished the regular season with a 15-2 record. One of their wins was a 3-1 victory over the Lions, in which York won the first set 25-21, before McMaster won three straight sets by scores of 25-18, 25-17 and 25-19 to pick up the victory. They come into the playoffs on the strength of a nine-game winning streak and haven't lost a set since dropping the first set to the Lions on Feb. 10, a string of 12 straight sets.
 
The Lions are led by fifth-year setter Logan Mend, who is once again proving he is one of the best setters in the country. Mend, who's earned first-team OUA all-star honours in each of the last two years, is ranked eighth in the OUA with 8.63 assists per set, third in service aces with 34, and is tied for first among setters with 1.3 points per set. Mend has a number of weapons at his disposal to set up for kills against the Marauders, including outside hitters Andrew Tauhid, Tyler Covach and Andrew Shotbolt. Tauhid is the Lions leading scorer with 3.9 points and 3.48 kills per set, while Covach and Shotbolt rank second and third on the team respectively in both categories.
 
York's attackers will have to contend with a Marauders team that ranked fourth in the OUA in digs per set (9.65) and sixth in blocks per set (2.21). They also have a dynamic offense which ranked second in the OUA in hitting percentage (28.4%) and second in kills per set (12.22). The Marauders counter at setter with David Doty, who ranked fifth in the OUA with 9.54 assists per set and they possess two dangerous hitters in Nathan Delguidice and Andrew Richards, who rank in the top-10 in the OUA in both points and kills per set.
 
The winner of Saturday's quarterfinal match will continue their quest for the Forsyth Cup and advance to the Final Four Championships next weekend. The highest remaining seed in the OUA East Division will host the Final Four Championships.