Banner Season: Badgers prevail in four sets to complete the Quigley Cup three-peat
St. Catharines, Ont. (via Brock Badgers) – For the third consecutive year, the Brock Badgers are on top of Ontario volleyball.
In front of a sold-out Bob Davis Gymnasium crowd, the No. 2 nationally ranked and No. 1 OUA seed Badgers took down the No. 9 nationally ranked and No. 3 OUA seed McMaster Marauders in four sets (20-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-16) on Friday, March 8.
"The job isn't done," said senior setter Sara Rohr. "We're going to celebrate tonight and just enjoy it because we worked so hard for it. But we're still going next weekend and focusing on that."
Right side Sadie Dick was a critical piece of the Badgers' offence, notching 15 kills. Outside hitter Madison Chimienti also was in the double digits in kills, earning 10 of her own. Rohr ran the Badgers offence effectively to the tune of 42 assists while also playing strong defence, leading the team with 15 digs.
"We felt we just had to keep pushing and keep firing," Rohr added. "The key was getting the separation going to Sadie and the left sides which opened us up to get some big kills."
Both teams came out strong, leading to an even score line for most of the first set. The McMaster Marauders took the first three-point lead of the game at 20-17 off a Brock hitting error. The Badgers brought it close to 24-22, but it was not enough as the Marauders took the first 25-22.
In the second set, Rohr got in the act, hitting a kill to make it 9-6. With a McMaster kill to tie things at 13 all, the Badgers called their first timeout of the second frame. A block from Laurin Ainsworth and then Gigi Markotic and Chimienti helped increase the lead for the Badgers, forcing two timeouts from the visitors. The block party helped seal the 25-20 second set win as Markotic and Rohr finished things off.
Multiple attack errors helped give the Badgers an early 8-2 lead in the third set. The Marauders fought back bringing the deficit to just two down 11-9, with the Badgers choosing to call their first timeout. Like the second set, Markotic and Chimienti combined for a block to nullify some of the McMaster momentum, bringing the lead to 15-10. The visitors tried to fight back, but the Badgers used strong attacking from Emily Foest and Ainsworth to seal the set 25-21.
An early 7-3 advantage saw the Badgers force a Marauders' timeout in the fourth set. In their best set hitting percentage wise (.458), the Badgers controlled the momentum from start to finish. Daryan Chadwick came off the bench to start the fourth and delivered four kills to help the Badgers take the final frame 25-16. For her efforts, Chadwick was also named the Player of the Match.
