Hamilton, ON- They’ve been in these situations before. A close game. A fifth set. A match point. These high leverage situations. The biggest moments of a match. 

The McMaster Marauders women’s volleyball team had won many games and prevailed in some of those moments. They had lost some as well – including their only loss of the regular season against the TMU Bold on Nov. 25. 

Marauders head coach Nathan Janzen felt this time was different as they faced the Bold on Jan. 19. He saw a different team. “A team that was determined and ready to fight…for every single point,” he said. “They were letting go of errors quickly. They were together.” 

Before the rematch with the Bold, the team talked about the phrase “punch back”. Yes, the Marauders knew the Bold would get their kills and make their plays. So could they. 

Punch back. Punch back. They kept repeating that throughout the game, according to middle Ellie Hatashita. 

That evening against the Bold and the following evening against the Toronto Varsity Blues, the Marauders punched back plenty of times.

Back last November, the Marauders’ first game against the Bold went the distance. McMaster held a lead in the fifth set before seeing it vanish. It was the Bold who landed the final punch.

Going into this game, Hatashita knew how important it was. They’ve lost to the Bold 10 times in a row. Their last victory against them was on Sept. 22, 2017 – before any of the members of this year’s team came to McMaster.

This was a chance to prove how much they’ve grown since their last meeting – starting with their mindset. 

Janzen felt how his team was pushed around in big moments previously. They carried every error with them, until it became this massive weight they were carrying into the biggest moments of matches. 

“You’re going to get punched. You’re going to take a couple,” Janzen remembers them talking about.

“It’s going to take patience and determination and a lot of grit to come out of those kind of matches with a win,” he continued. Janzen saw his team stay in the fight. 

Both teams dished out haymakers as their rematch went down to the final set. TMU won the first set before McMaster won the next two. The Bold responded by forcing a fifth set and then pushing the Marauders the distance once again. 

As the fifth set went along, McMaster kept scoring to force it to the brink of match point before TMU kept evening it up. Finally, with the score at 16-15, middle Jenna Woock scored the game-winning point from a service ace as her teammates ran onto the court to mob her. 

Even as their opponents kept responding, the Marauders held their belief. Hatashita pointed out how they had confidence in each other. As the match points grew, so did their confidence. “Once it was the third or fourth match point, I was like, ‘there’s no way we’re going to lose this one’,” she recalled. 

When the game got close, something else came through. After losing to TMU in November, they talked a lot about their mental game, according to Hatashita. They talked about needing to be more resilient. They can’t let those high-pressure moments get to them, she concluded. They needed to stay grounded and know what they have to do. 

In November, they felt TMU making their comeback and couldn’t close the game out. In January, Hatashita felt the pressure of TMU making another comeback. She felt something else as well. 

“In my mind, I didn’t think we were ever going to lose that game,” she said. “And I think a lot of other people felt the same way.” 

Every point is a completely new slate. That’s what Hatashita thinks about. Don’t let the past affect the future. 

Yes, it can be tough to not dwell on things, she admits. However, Hatashita knows she can’t let her teammates down by letting her emotions or mistakes consume her. 

She knows no situation will be perfect. Just do your best with the current one, she tells herself. Perhaps that punch back motto is in her head as well. 

Setter Chayse Victoria watched and cheered her teammates on from the bench before coming on at times for brief spurts as a substitute. 

Victoria had to switch her mentality depending on where she was. On the bench, she was supporting her team as loudly as she could. When she came on to serve, she knew she had to be composed.

Victoria took a deep breath as she stood on the service line. She tried to keep her composure. She tried to block off thoughts of what just happened or what will happen. “Be in the moment,” she told herself. 

The Marauders fought back from adversity the following night against the Varsity Blues as they won three sets to one. They bounced back from losing a tight 32-30 second set by winning the next two. 

They did so with that punch back mentality still in their minds. They know they’ll get punched. It’s about how they respond.

After every point, the players on the court go into a quick huddle. They make sure to lock eyes with each other, according to Woock. They’re always connecting. 

“That’s what brings us through,” Woock noted. “It kind of brings you out of yourself and into the team mindset instead of focusing on your own errors.” 

When outside hitter Emma McKinnon saw her teammates’ eyes, she knew they had each other’s backs. That pushed her to go after the following play. 

She knew those frustrating moments would come during the game – wacky touches that don’t go their way, leaving her wondering: “Can we just score a ball?” 

Then, McKinnon will take that frustration and push it back to her opponent. We can be frustrating too, she thought. We can be scrappy. We can get those points.

The Marauders did so while McKinnon finished with a season-high 17 kills. 

How long can the Marauders maintain this mentality? Janzen sees the strides they’ve made with the team culture – headlined by some pivotal meetings in Edmonton in late December. They know the special opportunity ahead of them as the hosts of the national championship. 

They know the next setback is just around the corner – isn’t it always? This is volleyball after all – a game of errors. 

“I believe that when the next setback happens for this team, we’ll be on a path that we’ll be able to, again, get over it and move on,” Janzen said. 

How they’ve reacted to games like the TMU and Toronto ones have been left to hope in the past, the head coach pointed out. “Now there’s starting to be some expectations, some accountability and some belief,” he added. “Not just hope.” 

A belief forged from how they’re reacted to failure. A belief forged from all their veterans and the experience they carry. 

There’s fifth-years Hatashita, Christina Stratford and Paige Entwistle. There’s fourth-years McKinnon and Hayley Brookes. There’s senior transfers Woock and setter Lauryn Colpitts.

They’ve all been in big moments before in different games and situations. They’re now learning to navigate those moments together. When they do so, Janzen sees that accountability, determination and communication. He can feel that belief. 

The biggest source for belief could be that togetherness. Victoria experienced it over the winter break when they went to Edmonton for three games in three days. They bonded over that time. They’ve had the trust with each. Now it was about all buying in. 

In Edmonton, they held a players only meeting. They agreed upon the same thing: Play for each other and not for anyone else, according to Victoria. “We’re here for each other,” she remembers them saying. “We need to play for each other in order to be together.” 

Before the game, they have a players-only huddle. They talk about being ready for the game and being there for each other, Victoria noted. 

It’s in their words and their play. In their eyes. It’s on Victoria’s footwear as well. She has different threads of string in different colours. Each represent different people she plays for. Some threads represent her family. Some represent the little girls in the stands who look up to her. 

When Victoria needs a reminder why she plays for her team? She only needs to look at those white threads on her shoes. 

Featured Image: Kevin Lassel/McMaster Athletics