Marauders make quick work of Rams to advance to OUA finals

TORONTO, Ont. - The No. 8 McMaster Marauders women's volleyball team will look to win their third OUA title in program history after defeating the Ryerson Rams in an exciting 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-21) OUA semifinal on Friday night (Mar. 10) at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.

McMaster will now face the winner of the first semifinal of the night, Western, in the gold-medal match tomorrow night at 8 p.m., at Goldring Centre. Both teams in the championship match will have earned a berth as one of three OUA representatives at the 2017 U SPORTS championship next weekend (Mar. 17-19) at Mattamy Athletic Centre alongside the host Ryerson Rams.

Ryerson will challenge Toronto in the OUA bronze-medal match at 6 p.m., tomorrow. Advance tickets are on sale here. Both games will also be streamed live on OUA.tv.

McMaster was led offensively by a pair of OUA first team all-stars in Joanna Jedrzejewska and Maicee Sorensen. Jedrzejewska finished the night with a game-high 18 points from 15 kills, one service ace and two solo blocks, while Sorensen earned 15 points off of 12 kill and three solo blocks.

OUA second team all-star libero Carly Heath earned play of the match honours for the Marauders with an incredible defensive effort picking up 40 digs in the three set match. Meanwhile, setter Caitlin Genovy registerd 40 assists on the night.

The Rams were paced by player of the match Theanna Vernon who picked up 11.5 points from seven kills and 4.5 blocks.

Close behind in the all-around team performance were Veronica Livingston and Cailin Wark who recorded nine and 8.5 points respectively.

Setter Kate McIlmoyle led the Rams defensively with 21 digs, while registering 31 assists.

Ryerson opened the night on fire, jumping ahead of the Marauders 13-4 in the early goings. However, after a timeout McMaster rebounded battling back with two service runs totaling ten points in order to earnd the 25-21 first set victory.

In the second set, the combination Maicee Sorensen and Joanna Jedrzejewska proved to be too much for the Rams as the pair overpowered Ryerson following the technical timeout. McMaster picked up a 25-17 second set win.

With momentum fully on their side, McMaster finished the evening behind the strong service game of Jedrzejewska and incredible defence of OUA second team all-star Carly Heath as they earned the straight sets win with a decisive 25-21 third set.

STAT LEADERS
 
McMaster
Kills: Joanna Jedrzejewska (15), Maicee Sorensen (12)
Points: Joanna Jedrzejewska (18), Maicee Sorensen (15)
Blocks: Maicee Sorensen (3), Joanna Jedrzejewksa (2), Alicia Jack (2)
Digs: Carly Heath (40)
Assists: Caitlin Genovy (40)
Service aces: Joanna Jedrzejewska (1)
 
Player of the match: Carly Heath
 
Ryerson
Kills: Veronica Livingston (8), Theanna Vernon (7), Cailin Wark (7)
Points: Theanna Vernon (11), Veronica Livingston (9)
Blocks: Theanna Vernon (4.5)
Digs: Kate McIlmoyle (21)
Assists: Kate McIlmoyle (31)
Service aces: Kate McIlmoyle (2)
 
Player of the match: Theanna Vernon
 
OUA FINAL FOUR SCHEDULE & RESULTS
 
Friday, March 10
6:00pm Western 3 Toronto 2
8:00pm McMaster 3 Ryerson 0
 
Saturday, March 11
6:00pm Bronze medal match: Toronto vs Ryerson
8:00pm Gold medal match: Western vs McMaster