McMaster women's soccer season ended on a high as the men's team continues through to the OUA finals
The regular season for both McMaster University’s women’s and men’s teams came to a successful close earlier this month. Both teams have earned themselves a playoff spot, with the women’s team finishing fourth and the men’s team finishing second in their respective divisions.
In their first round matchup the women took on the Brock Badgers. After failing to reach the playoffs in the season prior, the team was looking to make greater strides this time around.
On Wednesday night, the Marauders did just that. Within just 30 seconds, Bryanna Caldwell found the back of the net. The top goal scorer made good on a corner sent in from Ignacia Jimenez.
With the wind in her sails and a loud home crowd spurring the team on, Caldwell managed to score an almost identical goal. Another corner by Jimenez found the head of Caldwell, making the score two to zero.
“Ignacia puts the ball in the box and I know where it's going to land every time. It’s a connection only we have. Practice makes perfect,” says Caldwell.
“Ignacia puts the ball in the box and I know where it's going to land every time. It’s a connection only we have. Practice makes perfect.”
Bryanna Caldwell, Women's Soccer Team
The Badgers managed to put one in, but McMaster responded with a goal of their own by Tiam Pourbakhtiari. Brock put in one more goal just before the end of the game, bringing the game to a final score of three to two.
The women’s team went on to the quarterfinals to take on the Western Mustangs. In a disappointing game though, the team lost five to zero, effectively ending their playoff run.
While the team did not advance further, they are still looking to grow in the seasons to come. Having made it further than they had last year, it seems their game can only improve.
“With every season and game we’ve played, we’ve improved. This series of games is just a step in our path in growing as a team.” says Caldwell.
As the men’s team finished in second place, they were given a bye week. Resultantly, the bye week automatically placed the team in a quarterfinal spot, where they would take on the Guelph Gryphons.
The last time these teams met, the Marauders lost by two goals. This time however, the advantage was to the Marauders as Guelph was not awarded a bye week. The Gryphons took on the Brock Badgers just three days prior in a game that took the teams to double overtime and penalty kicks.
The Marauders won two to one against the Gryphons. Goals by Amir Shirazi and Miles Green brought the team over the Gryphons and into the OUA semi finals.
Facing the Nipissing Lakers in the semi final round, the two teams met on a very foggy night at Ron Joyce Stadium. It was the furthest most members on the team had ever gotten, so the feeling of anxiety was high for many in what turned out to be a really slow start.
“Many of us have not been in this position before, so maybe the nerves got to us,” explained Bryan Florent.
This was apparent as the game at half was tied with neither team having scored. Fortunately, the Marauders turned this around, coming out of the break on a game changing streak.
“The first half was very much a stalemate with attacks coming from both sides. In the second half, we had a change in mentality. We realized there's a difference between playing fast and playing rushed. We played rushed, which didn’t allow us to create opportunities,” said Florent.
"We realized there's a difference between playing fast and playing rushed. We played rushed, which didn’t allow us to create opportunities."
Bryan Florent, Men's Soccer Team
The team came out with a resounding win, with Green putting away two with assists from Sean Ross and Shirazi and Ed Bryan Florent putting away one on the assist from Justin Baker. This win qualified the team for Nationals and secured them a spot in the OUA Finals. They will now take on Toronto Metropolitan University in a challenge for the OUA Championship on Nov. 5.
It’s been an astonishing season on both sides, with head coach Miranda Wiley and rookie head coach Chris Markou leading their teams to new levels. With the roads paved by the current teams, the future of McMaster soccer looks bright.
The Marauders split a doubleheader with the Brock Badgers to finish their season with a losing record
The McMaster University fastpitch team concluded their season with a high-scoring doubleheader split against the Brock Badgers on Oct. 15 at Victoria Park. The maroon and gray team took the first of the two games with a 12 to eight score before losing the second game seven to 10.
After the homestand, the team finished their year with a record of seven wins and 13 losses. Through their 20 game season the Marauders struggled to find consistency with both their offense and pitching.
On Sep. 18 against the Carleton Ravens, the team won consecutive games following a torrent display of batting. Scoring a total of 38 runs across the doubleheader, McMaster claimed back-to-back victories with a 16 to two score win in the first game and a 22 to one game in the second. However, the team would go on to be shutout over their next three matches, giving up 34 overall runs and double digit scores against the Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers.
From Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, the Marauders faced their worst losing streak of the season, dropping five straight games to slide further in the Ontario University Softball rankings. Even with the Brock split, McMaster was unable to qualify for the OUS championship, missing their mark by a three game margin below the Lancers and Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks. In the end, the team tied with the Waterloo Warriors for fifth in the West Division standings after collecting 14 points.
For the year, the team allowed 158 runs to their opposition, the second worst mark in the league. Scoring 105 runs during the campaign, the Marauder’ run differential of -53 ranked the third worst overall behind Guelph (-118) and Carleton (-140), contributing to their difficulties in keeping games within competitive reach.
Scoring 105 runs during the campaign, the Marauder’ run differential of -53 ranked the third worst overall behind Guelph (-118) and Carleton (-140), contributing to their difficulties in keeping games within competitive reach.
When paired against their division rivals, the team ended up with an identical home and away record of two wins and six losses. For the overall year, McMaster fought their way to a win percentage of 35 per cent, improving upon their previous season’s total of 28.6 per cent alongside a record of four wins and 10 losses.
Despite the down year, bright spots emerged for the Marauders within their lineup. Pitcher and utility player Rhianna Guennel, who was named the one of the two top batters in the OUS in 2021, earned league all-star honours at the end of the season. Along with Guennel, rookie Paige Allen, who played third base, first base and the outfield, also received the all-star nod.
In her fifteenth year playing the sport, co-captain Alexis Crego discussed the hardships of enduring the season’s dense 20 game schedule.
“I’ve played in tournaments on my own travel teams, but never to this extent. . .You only get so much time so you have to mentally bounce back after every loss or every struggle,” said Crego.
“I’ve played in tournaments on my own travel teams, but never to this extent. . .You only get so much time so you have to mentally bounce back after every loss or every struggle,”
Alexis Crego, Co-Captain of the McMaster Fastpitch Team
From their first series against the Ottawa Gee-Gees before their two games with Brock, the Marauders played doubleheaders on back-to-back days every week from Sep. 17 to Oct. 8. This includes a set of three consecutive doubleheaders played on Sep. 30, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2.
Going forward, Crego believes this year will be pivotal in the development of her teammates and overall cohesion as a group.
“When our season is so short, I do think that the more we get to practice and the more we see each other as a team. . . We’ll definitely improve in communication and defensively as well.
Fielding eight rookies on their roster, the team looks ahead to 2023 with playoff ambitions following key experience and growth for its first-year players.
C/O Colin Wouda, McMaster Sports
The men’s volleyball team make OUA history once more, capping off the perfect final season for star veteran, Jordan Pereira
The McMaster Marauders men’s volleyball team is finally back on top of Ontario. In a back and forth battle starting in the 2005-2006 season, either the Queens Gaels or the Marauders have won the provincial title every year. McMaster currently holds nine titles while Queens holds the other six. In the previous two seasons the Gaels brought home the OUA title, but after an incredibly strong showing this past year, the Marauders have taken the trophy back to Hamilton.
With stars Sam Cooper and Jordan Pereira, the team was able to cap off their regular season with a perfect 12-0 record. Heading into the OUA playoffs the Marauders had some trouble with the Windsor Lancers, but managed to pull away before beating the Brock Badgers in the west division final and the Toronto Varsity Blues in the Forsyth Cup final.
“The whole playoff run was a good battle . . . Getting to play the finals at home in my last year and winning the game and having everyone celebrating really was a surreal feeling. After losing the last two, getting to win this one, I was crying after the game. I was overwhelmed with emotion,” said Pereira
“The whole playoff run was a good battle . . . Getting to play the finals at home in my last year and winning the game and having everyone celebrating really was a surreal feeling. After losing the last two, getting to win this one, I was crying after the game. I was overwhelmed with emotion."
Jordan Pereira, Men's Volleyball Team
On top of their legendary title run, several members of the team ended the year with individual recognitions. Dave Preston took the coach of the year award. Robbie Fujisawa and Maxime Gratton made the all-rookie team while Gratton also won the rookie of the year award. Wojtek Kraj and Mateusz Wlodarski were named to the second all-star team, while Sam Cooper and Jordan Pereira found themselves on the first all-star team.
The star-studded team continued their journey past the OUA playoffs and into the national tournament less than a week later. The team had their sights set on gold, but ended up losing their first matchup against the Calgary Dino’s, meaning that their first loss of the year would immediately send them into the consolation bracket.
“The quarter finals [of nationals] was a tough battle. Calgary is a really good team and we fell a little short. We fought really hard. Obviously it was a tough pill to swallow, losing in the quarter finals. We had our hopes on winning a national title,” explained Pereira.
The Marauders would follow the loss with two more wins against the Queen’s Gaels and the Manitoba Bisons, yielding a bittersweet fifth place finish in the tournament.
There were many emotional moments in the nationals run, but the player who was arguably most flooded with emotion was Pereira, who was playing the final game of his university career.
“In the Manitoba game right after the second set I was just sitting there on the bench like ‘woah, this is my last time wearing this uniform’ . . . I remember in Winnipeg after the last match I had my jersey on. Everyone was taking theirs off and changing, but I kept mine on. I didn’t want to take it off,” said Pereira.
"I remember in Winnipeg after the last match I had my jersey on. Everyone was taking theirs off and changing, but I kept mine on. I didn’t want to take it off."
Jordan Pereira, Men's Volleyball Team
Pereira spoke extremely highly of his time with the team, both this year and in the past. In his rookie year he became a champion with the team winning the OUA title. Now, he leaves a champion as well, cementing his legacy in maroon.
“Getting to win that in my final year was a great honour . . . I’m glad I chose this school. I made so many good friends, good relationships [and] met my girlfriend. It was really a great journey. We’ve had a lot of success, we’ve won some championships, we’ve lost some championships, but at the end of the day I’ve grown a lot as a person, as a player and as a student at the school. I’ll forever be grateful for picking this school,” explained Pereira.
Despite losing a star, the team is still set for years to come. It’s a very young team and the roster won’t experience much turnover heading into their next season. Pereira felt confident that the team will continue to find long term success and will have several more opportunities to reach their goal of a national title.
“This might be one of the most athletic teams we’ve had. The ceiling was really high . . . At the end of the day, we all play McMaster volleyball. Dave [Preston] runs a good show. I think they can expect the same as always with Dave as the coach because he’s built such a great culture. It’s the kind of thing that just keeps feeding into itself. Excellence breeds excellence. This team has a bright future. I see ourselves winning a championship one day,” said Pereira
"I think they can expect the same as always with Dave as the coach because he’s built such a great culture. It’s the kind of thing that just keeps feeding into itself. Excellence breeds excellence. This team has a bright future. I see ourselves winning a championship one day."
Jordan Pereira, Men's Volleyball Team
Over the course of the season, the volleyball team had to be one of the most entertaining to watch for students, packing the house in the provincial championship matchup. With much of their core still intact for next season, they will continue to be a team for students and fans to keep their eye on for years to come.
C/O McMaster sports
With qualification success, the men’s varsity baseball team will head into the OUA championships with quite a dramatic week behind them.
Written October 28th
During the weekend of Oct. 9 to Oct. 10, the Marauders Men’s Baseball team went against the Brock Badgers and the Guelph Gryphons in the Ontario University Athletics qualifiers for the final tournament that took place in Ajax just a week later.
The games in the Oakes Park Stadium did not get off to a great start. In their first game against the Brock Badgers, the Marauders fell to a loss of 4 to 1. Although this was not the perfect start, the qualifiers are based on a round-robin system, hence the Marauders still had a chance of making it to the final tournament.
Shortly after the first game, just about five hours later, the Marauders played against the Guelph Gryphons and had the chance to fix their round robin record, which would give them a chance of being the top seed within the tournament. However, the second game proved to be a very distressing one for all involved.
Midway through the game, in a routine fly ball, two McMaster players accidentally collided at one of the bases, causing severe injuries to both involved. Luckily for them, the coach of the Gryphons is a firefighter, while the cameraman who was present at the game is a paramedic. The coach and cameraman immediately rushed to the scene and helped the ones affected until the ambulance arrived approximately 20 minutes later.
As the ambulance arrived and the players were stretched off the field, the truck got stuck on the muddy field, causing the wheels to spin in place. Although a very troublesome predicament, varsity players from both universities collaborated to try to remove the truck from where it was stuck, making for a very unique moment in varsity history.
It was as if all the rivalries were set aside between the teams. As the Marauders scrambled to push the truck away, the Gryphons rushed to help their rivals out to get the truck moving. Eventually, the truck was freed and the ambulance made its way to the hospital.
This isn’t the first time a dangerous incident has happened during a game between the Gryphons and Marauders. In 2019, a McMaster assistant coach had a heart attack during batting practice, while the same coach for the Gryphons performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the assistant for 25 minutes until the ambulance arrived.
The game ended with a loss for the Marauders, ending at 12 to 0., However, this was not the most distressing part of the day. Ryan Clark, a longtime baseball team veteran, expressed the team's distress over the events that occurred during the game and how it affected them throughout.
“We were all really shocked by the whole series of events. That was the moment we realized that baseball is second and the health of our teammates [is] the priority. As the game continued, we were still all in shock so we didn't finish off well,” explained Clark.
After the two consecutive losses, the Marauders had to play the semifinals against the Gryphons again, but this time they had newfound motivation.
“Just before our next game in the semifinals we spoke to each other and called for focus. We knew that we were the best team there and we wanted to prove it. We wanted to play for our players and to win the whole qualifier for them,” said Clark.
This new motivation helped the Marauders significantly.. Just one day after the incident, the Marauders came out on top against the Gryphons, with a 10 to 8 win. This meant that the Marauders made it to the finals of the qualifier, where they were to play against the Brock Badgers.
In the final game against the Badgers, the Marauders did the unthinkable. After losing their first two games, the Marauders beat the Badgers 9 to 4 in the finals of the qualifiers, meaning that they officially qualified for the Ontario University Athletics championships of Oct. 17.
When asked for final thoughts regarding the entire comeback, Clark said he knew this would happen.
“After beating [the Brock Badgers], we proved that we were the best team there. It is something that we knew from the very first moment and to actually finish off the qualifiers in first place, it was a job well done. We are now looking towards the championship in a week where we are confident that we will [again] do well,” explained Clark.
The OUA Men's Baseball Championship took place on Sunday, Oct. 17 in Ajax Sportsplex and involved four different teams around Ontario battling for first place. McMaster’s first game was against the Carleton Ravens at 11:00 am.
While many of us were “studying” (it’s fine if you didn’t study, no judgement here) this past reading week, many McMaster athletes were busy competing in their last few regular season games. Here are four key things you may have missed during the reading week.
1. The Mac women’s rugby team started their reading week off on fire, defeating the Wilfred Laurier University Golden Hawks 109-0 in their Ontario University Athletics quarter-final playoff game on Oct. 5. Unfortunately for them, their championship dreams came to an end less than a week later, when they played the Queen’s University Gaels. Scoring their first try in the seventh minute, the Gaels pulled away with a 29-24 victory. But the season is not over yet for Mac. They will host the Brock University Badgers for one last game to determine who will win the OUA bronze medal, this Friday night at Ron Joyce Stadium. [spacer height="20px"]
2. The Marauders football team started off their reading week on a good note, finding themselves back in the U Sports top 10 rankings at No. 9, following a three-game winning streak. With the return of running back Justice Allin, the Marauders just managed to pull away with a win against the Gaels on Oct. 5. Their hopes of extending their streak to four weeks came to an end after the University of Waterloo Warriors outlasted them in a 34-16 loss. Up next, their last game of the season will be against the University of Windsor Lancers this Saturday at 1:00 pm.
#OUA FBALL
2nd and long? No problem for @McMasterSports, as Andreas Dueck connects with Tommy Nield for the first down and more to put the visitors up 11-9 over the @WlooWarriors!#WeAreONE | #MACvsWAT pic.twitter.com/uKnzlItpSf
— OUA (@OUAsport) 13 October 2018
3. The McMaster men’s cross-country team entered the national rankings at number two during the break, while the women secured the ninth-place spot. The Marauders hosted the Bayfront Open for the second time during the weekend, and saw success once again. Leading the pack, the men’s team won the team title by a 29-point margin, while the women took home bronze.[spacer height="20px"]
4. Both the men and women’s soccer teams remained dominant during the break. The men beat the Badgers 1-0 on Oct. 6, while the women beat them 2-1. By the end of the game, women’s forward Stephanie Roberts became the province’s fourth-leading scorer, with a total of nine goals, just two behind the OUA-leader, Gaels’ Jenny Wolever. The following weekend, the women were able to tie their match against the Waterloo Warriors 1-1, while the men dominated the Warriors in a 3-1 victory.
Men's Soccer -- The Marauders put three past the Warriors on Alumni Day Saturday, keeping hold of third in the @OUAsport West. #GoMacGo https://t.co/BlAirhYopI
— McMaster Athletics (@McMasterSports) 14 October 2018
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Following a successful 2017 campaign that saw the McMaster men’s rugby team bring home a provincial bronze medal, the Marauders will be looking to build upon that success. While the core program remains similar, there have been quite a few notable changes to the team in different areas.
“Every season there's a bit of turnover right,” men’s rugby head coach Pletch said. “We lost a few experienced guys, especially in some of our forwards up front. But we're quite happy with our first-year class this year. This is probably the strongest group that we've had sort of overall as a group in terms of our recruit class.”
Coach Pletch noted that the rugby team this year features a strong balance of players spread out in every position, which gives the team good overall depth. In addition to that positional depth, the team features a solid mix of upper-, middle- and lower-year players that make up this year’s roster.
“It's kind of where you want to be as a program, to sort of have these veterans and young guys,” said coach Pletch. “You know you have good performances during the season but you're also developing for the future. I would say this is the best-balanced group that we've had.”
As with any group, leadership is imperative to the team’s success. Being a large program of 60 players, that leadership is taken over by a group of six captains who are selected by the players.
“We do a postseason survey and we ask them questions,” coach Pletch said. “Things like who's the hardest worker on the team, who is the biggest rugby nerd, who kind of watches the most rugby. There's other stuff like who is the best academic student on the team. We have a kind of committee of captains and then I actually let the captains decide each week for the varsity game-day captain, like the one who does the coin toss and goes to speak to the referee but they kind of share the leadership as a team.”
Leading this particularly strong rookie class is wing EJ Rerri, who scored his two first career tries in Mac’s win over the Trent Excalibur on Sept. 9.
“He started the first two games for us this season,” said coach Pletch. “He is very athletic, he's got good game sense. He is a really great finisher, so if he gets the ball with a little of space there's not too many people that can track him down.”
In addition to solidifying the roster, coach Pletch continues to adjust how the program operates, tweaking how training camp is run and putting more of an emphasis on recovery, video and review in his fifth season at the helm. The team is also doing yoga regularly as part of their training.
A high school teacher when he is not coaching varsity rugby, coach Pletch has also been trying to implement an academic-inspired approach to coaching. He’s brought problem-based learning methods that are used by health science programs into their method for teaching the playbook to players. He was able to do so successfully this offseason and is seeing results already.
“We're really trying to get away from sort of the traditional, explicit style of coaching where the coach is basically just telling the athletes what to do,” coach Pletch said. “We're trying to do that with our coaching where the coaches sort of create different drills and games and looking at videos where we kind of set up the situation that we want the athletes to learn from and then we try to get them to problem solve and find answers for themselves.”
“I think it's a more effective style of learning and also players just seem to really enjoy it, I think they get sort of a sense of ownership from it,” coach Pletch added. “They enjoy being involved in the actual creation of what we're trying to do out there. The kids are having more fun I think than we've had in years past.”
In addition to changes on the field, the Marauders added a new member to their coaching staff in April. The Marauders welcomed back one of their own, Aaron Carpenter, who was recently named to the McMaster hall of fame and is Canada’s all-time leader in appearances on the senior men’s team. Pletch actually played with Carpenter during their collegiate days, and in this reunion, the new assistant has already made an impact in his short time with the team.
“It's great to have him back,” said coach Pletch. “He just recently retired from playing professional rugby in England and playing with the national team. So having a guy like that and just his technical and tactical knowledge has been a big bonus this year. He’s a Marauder through and through.”
As the team notched another win under its belt, winning 38-20 over the Brock Badgers over Homecoming weekend, there is still a lot of season yet to be played. As they move on, it is clear the team’s culture and makeup has prepared them to dominate Ontario University Athletics.
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