Marauders sweep at Toronto Invitational

By: John Bauer

One of the quirks of the OUA women’s volleyball season is the December full-league shutdown for exams.

Luckily for the 7-3 McMaster Marauders, the University of Toronto National Invitational Tournament provided an opportunity for the women to stay sharp during the layoff. And stay sharp they did, sweeping their three-game slate.

The National Invitational Tournament provided Ontario powerhouses Toronto and McMaster the rare opportunity to play Eastern teams outside of the CIS playoffs and preseason play. This year brought the McGill Redmen and the Sherbrooke Vert et Or, both of whom have been flirting with the CIS top ten rankings all year, as well as the Acadia Axewomen to the Goldring Athletic Centre in Toronto.

McMaster disposed of Sherbrooke in four sets on the tournament’s opening day, followed by a five-set nail-biter against McGill. They wrapped up the tournament sweep with a 3-1 victory over Acadia. It was the McGill game, however, that the women circled on their calendars coming in.

“I think if you were to ask our team, there would be consensus that playing McGill was a great opportunity .They are a hard-hitting team with a determined defence. It is always great to work against a team like this as it allows us to push both our offence and our defence to the limits,” said veteran outside hitter Rebecca Steckle.

McMaster’s leading scorer, Joanna Jedrzejewska, agreed, but also saw an oddity in the tournament’s scheduling:

“I was disappointed that we didn’t get the opportunity to play University of Toronto because they seemed like the team that would be potential opponents in CIS playoffs, as well as OUA playoffs.”

Coach Tim Louks said that the Sherbrooke game was the most important from a coaching standpoint.

“They matched up against us pretty well. They did a few things that I was excited to see because it forced us to get into those in-game adjustments, where, ‘hey, we want to do this,’ but they’re not going to let you do it easily … we got a bunch of good IQ things through that.”

Since the tournament’s format did not include a championship game to crown a “winner,” the coaches were given the opportunity to get a bit creative with their game strategies. According to Jedrzejewska, the invitational was “a chance to try out new things and give all players a chance... It’s a good opportunity to try different players and rotations in order to get the experience without the risk.”

But this does not mean the Marauders took the games lightly.

“As a team we work hard at playing all games as though they are the final of the OUA championship,” said Steckle. “Before every game we would come together and remind each other that this game is just as important for us as a team – whether or not the win or loss mattered in terms of standings.”

With the break now over, the Marauders are refocusing their attention on the current regular season dogfight.

“We’ve got to go on the road this weekend, three in a row on the road. None of them easy, all of them [OUA] West opponents,” said Louks of his team’s upcoming trio of games against Western, Windsor, and Brock. “All of them we were successful against in the first half, none of them are going to be happy about that.”

While there is still a lot of season to go, McMaster has shown over the past few campaigns that they are a perennial contender for the OUA crown, if not the Canadian title.

“Seeing that Toronto facility is pretty impressive. And that’s where the Nationals are,” said Louks. “[It’s] a hard road ahead, but I think they’re believing more than they’ve ever believed.”