Banner Season: Badgers earn redemption over Marauders in Quigley Cup rematch

St. Catharines, Ont. (via Graydon Bebbington, Brock Badgers) - The Brock Badgers have captured their fourth OUA championship in the last five years.

Before a capacity crowd at Brock University’s Bob Davis Gymnasium, the Badgers defeated the defending OUA champion McMaster Marauders 3-1 (25-20, 24-26, 25-23, 25-18) on Friday, March 6.

“It's always awesome to play here.” said head coach Steve Delaney. “The home crowd is great. It’s like having an extra player on the court; that’s why we fight so hard for home court advantage.”

Daryan Chadwick led the way for the Badgers, recording a career-high and game-high 18 points off 17 kills and one service ace, earning her Player of the Game honours. For the Marauders, Olivia Julien tallied a team-high 16 points, all from kills.

“It feels amazing to win the Quigley Cup,” Chadwick said. “We set a goal to be in this game at the start of the year and to win it is surreal.”

The Badgers started strong, breaking out to an early 8-4 lead in the first set highlighted by four combined points from Chadwick and Charlotte Ross.

Angelika Vidmar and Lucie Shaver’s attacking helped cut the Badgers’ lead down to 20-19, but the hosts ultimately closed the frame 25-20 after two straight McMaster attack errors.

The Marauders committed five service and five attack errors, while the Badgers matched the five service errors but recorded just one hitting error in the frame.

In the second set, a key kill from Vidmar helped ignite a 9-3 run for the Marauders to give them a 20-18 advantage, with the Badgers committing four errors in the process.

Emily Foest, Madison Tuck and Emma Baruchelli each recorded kills to help Brock regain the lead 23-21, but this was short lived as kills from Maddy Lutes, Julien and Shaver helped McMaster score five of the next six points for the second-set victory.

Despite Brock winning the kill battle 14-11, attack errors proved to be decisive as Brock committed eight to McMaster’s six.

The third set followed a similar theme to the second as strong attacking from Shaver and Julien fuelled a run for the Marauders that gave them a 17-13 lead.

After trailing 20-18, the Badgers took advantage of four consecutive errors from the Marauders, and a late surge powered by Ross and Foest gave them a narrow 25-23 victory.

Despite outhitting Brock .294 to .200, McMastercould not win the kills battle as Brock bested them in that category 17-13.

“I think having a moment to reset, reset our minds and just start back at 0-0 helped,” Chadwick said. “Having that time was super important to get us back into the game and bring the momentum back on our side.”

Looking to win the championship in the fourth set, the Badgers doubled up their opponents 18-9 off dominant attacking as they notched 11 kills in that stretch.

Holding a lead of at least five throughout the rest of the set, Baruchelli tallied three of the Badgers’ final seven points to claim victory in the fourth and what would be the final frame 25-18.

“Staying aggressive was really important,” Chadwick said. “McMaster has a really good offence, but it was our grit that kept us in the game.”

Brock’s hitting percentage was the standout factor in the fourth set, recording a match-best .400 compared to McMaster’s .189.

Throughout the game, errors remained relatively even, with Brock committing 19 attack errors to McMaster’s 18 and 14 service errors to the Marauders’ 13.

A key to the match was the Badgers' strong offence as they won the kills battle 58-48 while also outhitting their opposition .273 to .204.

With the victory, the Badgers are headed to Langley, B.C., from Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 18 as the sole representative from Ontario at the 2026 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship.

“It feels great to win the Quigley again in our gym,” Delaney said. “It’s now on to the U SPORTS Championship. We want to take a couple moments to celebrate, and then we got to figure out our plans to leave on Tuesday and get ready for the tournament.”