After losing its first home game of the OUA season on Friday, the McMaster women's volleyball team downed the RMC Paladins 3-1 on Saturday night to end the conference schedule with a win.

It was Marauder Weekend so a healthy contingent of alumni were back to support the team, and it was also Senior's Night as the Marauder Program recognized the four 4^th-year and one 5^th-year players on the roster.

Perhaps all the hoop-la proved distracting, as the Marauders gave up a late 23-21 lead and ended up dropping the first set 28-26 to the Paladins.  McMaster Coach Tim Louks started all five of his seniors in the match and played them for the majority of the first set.

Trailing by a set, McMaster took control of the second set behind some strong serving and much improved passing that saw the Maroon up 16-10 at the technical timeout.  The Marauders kept up the pressure and closed out a 25-16 score to even the match. 

Coach Louks used some different player combinations, and got solid performances from across the squad.

The third set was all McMaster as the team jumped out to an 11-3 lead as Mira Krunic got on a serving roll.  Leading 16-6 at the technical break, it was then Lauren Mastroluisi, who got in a groove from the service line and the Marauders cruised to a 25-11 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

RMC showed it had some fight left in the fourth set and trailed the Marauders 16-14 after going back and forth up to the technical timeout.   Not wanting to extend the match any further, McMaster assumed control coming out of the break and dashed to a 25-18 win to take the match. Melanie Walsh served an ace on match point for the win.

Mac was led by Taylor Brisebois who recorded 10 kills in her 17 points, while Mastroluisi had 13 kills and finished with 16 points. 
 
The five seniors that were honoured prior to the game included Krunic, Mastroluisi, Walsh, and Brisebois, along with Lauren Carter.

The Marauders finish the OUA season with a 15 and 4 record and will next play an OUA quarterfinal on Saturday, February 14^th at 7 p.m. in the Burridge Gym.  Their opponent will be the Western Mustangs, who claimed the final playoff spot in the OUA West division.