By Tristan Forde
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) men’s volleyball team conquered the McMaster Marauders in an exciting five-set game at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) on Saturday night.
After suffering a straight sweep at the hands of the Marauders on Friday night, the Bold spent the day preparing everything they’d needed to come into this game strong.
“We had a good practice this morning,” said head coach Niko Rukavina. “I told them to take what we learned from yesterday and level up a little bit.”
The opening set kicked off with back-to-back errors on both sides. But from there, backed by the roars of the Bold fans in the crowd as they filled the gym, TMU brought a newfound energy to the game that would power them through everything the defending champions threw at them for two-and-a-half hours of play.
“I’m not entirely sure we would’ve won that fifth set without them, the energy and everything the atmosphere is awesome,” said third-year outside hitter Riley Donovan.
The game started off rocky for the Bold, losing the first few points to a series of errors. The Marauders took the opportunity to capitalize off of the home team’s mistakes and hit back twice as hard. Second-year middle Jared Kuiken acted as a tall pillar for the team to follow close behind, finding gaps around TMU blockers and consistently scoring.
At that point, the Marauders hijacked the energy in the gym and put the Bold on their heels. With strong serves and well-placed swings, the visitors read the Bold like a textbook. Forced to play more simply and smartly, normally hyper-aggressive players such as graduate outside hitter Alex King were forced to step back and play a lot more conservatively, focusing more on strategic placements over big glamorous kills.
They couldn’t find a rhythm yet, however, as the Marauders surged to a 25-19 victory in the first set.
Donovan opened up the second set by taking command of the backcourt. The Australian hitter’s voice could be heard throughout the whole gym as he communicated with his teammates on every play.
“Riley Donovan is one of our best defenders and he’s on the court for that very reason. I always feel confident in him,” said Rukavina.
Donovan would get 11 kills, 40 reception attempts and the second-highest hitting percentage on the team with .286 per cent.
Fourth-year outside hitter Jacob Walker also stepped up on defence, setting up a massive stuff block on the Marauders, leaving them further behind in the dust. This led McMaster into their timeout with the score sitting at 14-8. During the timeout, members of the Bold women’s volleyball team initiated a cheer with the fans in the crowd, sending them into an uproar.
The Bold shifted their focus to improving their defence instead of offence because the Marauders were transforming every attack into a point. Graduate outside hitter Maxine Gratton led the whole gym as the kill leader with 19 kills.
Normally having been known as a hyper-offensive option, Walker’s defence stood out where it was needed in the match. His and Donovan’s combined defensive efforts kept the Bold in play and allowed them to set up their offence to further build the gap.
Coming to the closing point of the second set, King shows why that’s what they call him, with a massive block over the Marauders. With that, the Bold took the second set 25-19, evening the match-up.
The Bold entered the third set immediately with a roof block from second-year outside hitter Day Westell shutting down Marauders’ top hitter, Gratton. As smiles and cheers continued to erupt from the Bold side of the court, McMaster took no step back, taking advantage of a few unforced errors to tie up the game.
The Marauders’ power trip would come to an end with a triple block consisting of fourth-year setter Taylor Wenzel, fourth-year outside hitter Kai Higuchi and King. This would lead McMaster’s morale to crumble.
With drooping heads, the Marauders’ big hitters Gratton and second-year Kaden Zunti emerged to try and raise the team’s spirits but this would prove fruitless when Donovan reminded the crowd that he was not just a defensive player with a hard swing that bounced off of Gratton’s head to the ceiling of the MAC.
Nevertheless, Zunti would put his foot forward and support the team with hard swings through the blocks and hitting unsupervised spots on the Bold side of the court.
The high energy was put on pause after a few miscommunications and hesitations in the Bold back row, allowing the Marauders to tie up the game. This allowed for a tight game all the way till the end of the set, though Walker would end the frame with an emphatic ace on first-year opposite hitter Seth O’Brien. The Bold took the third set 25-23.
“Riley Donovan is one of our best defenders and he’s on the court for that very reason. I always feel confident in him”
Looking to take this game to a fifth set, the Marauders stepped into the game with a vengeance in the fourth set. The Bold, meanwhile, entered running high off the last set victory.
Mistake after mistake from the Marauders pushed the Bold further and further away from them. Despite the constant chirping of the crowd, O’Brien silenced the audience with a strong block against King. This acted as the revolutionary point for the Marauders to steal the control that the Bold had and run with it.
Kuiken seemingly found a way around the block every time, turning him into a consistent option for the Marauders as they took an 11-7 lead. Gratton then connected on a two-ball play, but the Bold defence was unphased by it. With the support of Kuiken, O’Brien would dethrone King a second time.
With the ripple in the Bold’s flow, they allowed the Marauders to carry the lead to win the set 25-22. This sent the game to a fifth and final set, putting the Bold in a race to 15 points for revenge.
“I lean on my teammates, they want the best for me, I want the best for them,” said Donovan. “[Going into the fifth set] we have snacks on the bench, dried mangoes, guys will fill up our water bottles and I just try to breathe.”
The suspense came to a tee as the final set began and the gym erupted with cheers as Bold and Marauders fans battled for sound space. The heavy pressure put on the players’ shoulders was demonstrated by back-to-back service mistakes on both teams.
Gratton truly showed himself as the only hitting option for the Marauders. As soon as the Bold caught wind of that information, all they had to do was coordinate their defence around stopping him.
This heavy burden put on Gratton’s head would weigh him down when he swung and missed the ball for the final point of the game. With defence as a backbone, the Bold won the set 15-12 and left the rumbling building with a victory.
“At this point, we’re fighting for a playoff spot, so coming out of this weekend 1-1 against the defending champions is awesome,” said Rukavina.
UP NEXT: The Bold return to the MAC to play against the Guelph Gryphons on Jan. 24. First-serve flies at 8 p.m.
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