If Emma McKinnon had banked on her final university volleyball stretch being an emotional roller-coaster, she certainly got her money’s worth.
The heartbreak of that spectrum came at Winnipeg’s University of Manitoba Friday afternoon. The Milton outside hitter and her McMaster Marauders held a two-sets-to-one advantage and had match point in the winner-takes-all fifth set before being vanquished by the Montreal Carabins 16-14 in the national U Sports quarterfinals.
McMaster clearly held the momentum after an opening set defeat, before falling agonizingly short to the eventual silver medalists.
A fifth-year humanities graduating student, McKinnon had 10 kills, seven digs and 27 total attacks in the too-close-for-comfort quarterfinals, which followed the Marauders’ 3-0 OUA title win over the three-time defending champion Brock Badgers.
No stranger to provincial volleyball success herself, fellow Miltonian Devan O’Connor -- a key part of Humber College’s OCAA championship dynasty from 2016-18 -- now serves as an assistant coach with McMaster.
McKinnon put her stamp on the Marauders’ OUA final win with a team-high 13 digs and six kills.
This highlighted a final season in which she earned an OUA 3rd Team All-Star nod with 168 kills and 192.5 total points.
McMaster would shake off their U Sports quarterfinal heartbreak with back-to-back victories to claim the consolation championship.
They’d sweep Newfoundland’s Memorial SeaHawks 3-0 Saturday and then outlast Halifax’s St. Mary’s Huskies 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 14-25, 25-18, 15-6) Sunday in the battle for fifth.
McKinnon delivered 15 digs and 10.5 points to grab player of the game honours in the season-ending comeback win.
The tournament hosts captured gold with a 3-1 win over Montreal.