Steck it to ‘em
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The first moments of McMaster’s match against Lakehead last Friday night featured furious rallies indicating quite clearly that the 5-9 Thunderwolves wouldn’t go down silently at Burridge.
The first set ended in a close 25-21 decision in Mac’s favor, but it wasn’t until the second set that McMaster began to expose their opponents.
Fourth-year middle Rebecca Steckle noticed the hole in the defense.
“By the second set I knew that their defense wasn’t stopping our right side. In that moment I recognized that and told myself that if I got set I would do my best to put it down on them,” said Steckle. “If not score, I wanted to put them under stress so we could get a ball back and somebody else could score. They just weren’t stopping it. The second set was when we found their defensive weakness and we took advantage of it.”
There was a stretch in the match where Marauder first-year setter Michelle Chelladurai was setting every ball to Steckle on the right side and it hit nothing but floor every time Steckle touched it.
It was clear that McMaster had found the hot hand. Head Coach Tim Louks called it her best career match to date.
“Steckle was the player of the game,” said Louks. “There’s no question. Her intent was to block and attack everything above the height of the net. She had a great match.”
“I try not to think about my own game. I was just having fun. For me, it’s always about not thinking too hard about it and just playing the game,” said Steckle. “I just want to help my team win. If I can do that, then I’ll have a good match whether or not I’m the one putting the points on the board.”
The Marauders took the second set 25-19 and cruised to an authoritative 25-9 victory in the third set to end the match. McMaster had solved Lakehead and had little trouble putting them away.
“Regardless of scores, I felt like we played like we practiced all week,” said Louks.
McMaster got progressively better as the match went on.
“I think we started out slow, which is difficult sometimes if we want to get momentum, but we pushed through the beginning to get to a really good ending,” Steckle said. “Lakehead was good and we worked through it, but in the future we need to play at a high level the entire match.”
Steckle finished with a team-high 15.5 points and got nice support from fellow frontcourt teammates Taylor Brisebois and Maicee Sorensen who scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.
“I just want to help my team win. If I can do that, then I’ll have a good match whether or not I’m the one putting the points on the board.”
This week is Think Pink week for McMaster Athletics and the Marauders will host OUA powerhouses in Ryerson and Toronto later this week. Both Toronto teams will be a challenge for McMaster.
Ryerson is 12-3 while Toronto boasts a 16-0 record. McMaster is 13-2 and has lost 12 sets all year. That’s the second fewest lost sets in the OUA.
The only team that has lost fewer sets than them? Toronto. The Varsity Blues have only lost two sets all season.
“Against Ryerson and Toronto we need to maintain a high level of play throughout the match. We naturally have a lot of respect for both teams because we’ve seen what they can do,” Steckle said. “At the same time, we want to beat them and we believe that we can. There’s nothing but excitement in our team room this week. We know it’s a big weekend and we want to get after it. Our team works best when we’re having a good time.”
Photo Credit: Alistar Boulby
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