Stephen Maar (left) and Danny Demyanenko (right) after a practice earlier this week at McMaster University. Photo: Jeff Tam
The McMaster Marauders took aim at the stars this past year, and for a time, it seemed that the program would be forced back to earth.
Head Coach Dave Preston embarked on a recruiting drive nearly a year ago with the stated mission of chasing down the very best.
The only problem: the best rarely stay north of the 49th parallel.
“I told our players that we were going after some blue chip guys this year,” explains Preston. “I warned them what that could mean.”
The “blue chip” class in question was headlined by Danny Demyanenko and Stephen Maar, two leading members of the vaunted Toronto Crush club team that successfully toured the United States before winning yet another national club title in May.
2012 NCAA Men's Volleyball Brackets
Off the Block, Kill on Two launch new postseason bracket challenge
Volleyball fans can now fill out their brackets in the Kill on Two/Off the Block NCAA Men's Volleyball Postseason Bracket Challenge for a chance to potentially see the United States or Canada clinch an Olympic berth.
The Kill on Two/Off the Block NCAA Men's Volleyball Postseason Bracket Challenge is a new contest that gives fans the opportunity to predict who will win matches in the upcoming MPSF, MIVA and EIVA conference tournaments and the four-team NCAA Tournament.
The eight-team MPSF Tournament and the seven-team MIVA Tournament begin this weekend, while the four-team EIVA Tournament starts next week. The three conference tournament champions and one at-large bid will advance to the NCAA Tournament on May 3-5 in Los Angeles.
Photo: Nick Juhasz.
It's almost December and that means that our friends to the south will be beginning their month long college and university women's volleyball tournament. The 2011 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship this year takes place in San Antonio, Texas on December 15th-17th, however we do have an entire month of games leading into the championship.
Brackets
Fill out your brackets
This year we decided to host some NCAA brackets of our own and let our users to bracket predictions. Head on over to our 2011 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament Brackets page for more info.
Live Streams
As always, we'll bring you links to the live streams of the matches so that you can watch your favourite teams play this month. Stay tuned.
Live Streams and updates after the jump.