The Brock men's volleyball team took the No. 4 McMaster Marauders to the brink on Sunday.

The Badgers pushed the Marauders to a fifth set during a 3-2 (25-20, 19-25, 18-25, 25-19, 13-15) loss in Hamilton.

"We went into the match knowing we need to upset McMaster to stay in the playoff picture," said head coach Doug Hanes. "We played with a little more desperation."

Brock came out flying in the first set before McMaster took a 2-1 lead. The Badgers rallied in the fourth set with a .478 kill percentage.

"McMaster was missing their top left side player, so the game plan was to serve his replacement, who had not had much game time," said Hanes. "It worked in the first set. Our passing was excellent in the first set and allowed us to get the ball to Peter Schnabel in the middle, who scored at will."

In the fifth, the Badgers led 8-6 before switching sides.

"Mac pushed back and took the lead with a few mistakes on our part," said Hanes. "In the end, we made one more mistake than they did. I was very pleased with our level of play and competitiveness in a match against last year's U SPORTS bronze medalists. We are a team in our third year of existence and still building our program, so the future does seem bright if we continue to improve as a group."

Logan House and Peter Schnabel each scored 14 kills. House added 11 digs and Schnabel registered a .619 kill percentage.

Clay Blanchette recorded nine kills, while Marcelo Correa and Mark Naqvi each scored seven. Dean Globocki notched five kills and six digs.

Up next, the Badgers (7-9) travel to Guelph to battle the Gryphons (5-11) on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m.