Boxscore
Photogallery by John Sheahan
Post Game Audio
- McMaster Marauder Head Coach Dave Preston
- Queen's Gaels Libero Stu Hamilton

Kingston, Ont. (February 17, 2009) – The McMaster Marauders drew first blood during Game one of the OUA men's volleyball championship presented by Mikasa on Tuesday, edging the Queen's Gaels 3-1 inside Bartlett Gymnasium at Queen's University.

After stumbling out of the gate losing the opening set 20-25, McMaster edged Queen's in the remaining sets going 25-22, 25-22 and 25-18 to take the series lead 1-0 heading back to Hamilton.

McMaster's Jeremy Groenveld of Welland, Ont., secured a game-high 25 points on 22 kills and three blocks. He also was the game leader in digs with 11. Josh Lichty of St. Catharines, Ont., contributed nine kills and tallied 13 points. In all the Marauders had four players record double digits in points.

Marauder Setter Ryan Hudson of Winnipeg recorded 45 assists.

McMaster Head Coach Dave Preston was impressed his team delivered despite playing in front of a boisterous Queen's crowd.

“It's probably the toughest gym in Ontario to win in”, Preston said. “We wanted to be really aggressive and we did that; but by no means is this series done. I expect [Queen's] to be ready Thursday night.”

Joren Zeeman of Cambridge, Ont., provided most of the scoring for the Gaels securing 22 points on 19 kills. Three Gaels recorded seven kills each including Jeff DeMeza of Calgary, Sam Pedlow of Barrie, Ont., and Niko Rukavina of Mississauga, Ont. Second-year setter Daniel Rosenbaum of Hamilton posted 42 assists.

This is the fifth consecutive time these two teams have met in the playoffs and the third year in a row in the OUA finals. Last year McMaster edged the Gaels 2-0 to earn a banner, while Queen's captured the OUA crown two seasons ago 2-1

Game two of the best-of-three series is scheduled for Thursday at 7:00pm at McMaster's Burridge Gymnasium. If Queen's rebounds from their game-one loss, a third match would take place on Saturday, February 21st also at McMaster.

SSN will broadcast each game of the OUA men's volleyball final live at www.ssncanada.ca

NOTE: Josh Lichty is brother of Gaels fourth-year student-athlete Luke Lichty. … Queen's is aiming to earn their third men's volleyball crown in four seasons. … McMaster's is ranked as the No. 1 seeded in the playoffs, while the Gaels are seeded No. 2. … McMaster's overall record improves to 19-3 while Queen's falls to 17-5 including tonight's game.