The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's volleyball team opened their 2025-26 OUA regular season with an exciting five-set victory over the McMaster Marauders on Saturday (Oct. 25) in Hamilton.

Set scores in the match were 25-22, 20-25, 15-25, 25-20, 18-16.

After falling behind 2-1 ahead of the fourth set, the Blues found new confidence and energy despite a loud home crowd for the Marauders. In the come-from-behind effort, U of T averaged a kill percentage of .370 across the final two sets. This was in addition to a mobile defence that saw three Varsity Blues tally double-digit digs in the victory.

Toronto were led by a pair of fifth-year veteran outside hitters as Maxime Gratton scored a game-high 24 points in his return to McMaster, while Hunter Arulpragasam tallied 21 to start his fifth season in the Blue and White. Gratton finished the five set match with 19 kills, four service aces and one solo block. Arulpragasam reached his point total with 19 kills and two aces.

Fourth-year setter Michael Hickey guided the Blues offence 42 assists. Defensively, fifth-year libero Rylan Armstrong registered a team-high 18 digs, while Arulpragasam added 11 and Hickey recorded 10.

Mekhi Fitzgerald was the lone Marauder to cross the 20 point plateau finishing the tough home loss with 19 kills, two aces and one block assists.

The Blues and Marauders will be right back in action from Hamilton tomorrow (Oct. 26) afternoon. First serve is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. with the game set to be streamed live on oua.tv.