Men’s Volleyball tames Mustangs in OUA quarter-finals

The No. 7 Windsor Lancer men’s volleyball team defeated the Western Mustangs 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-20) in OUA quarter final action at the Toldo Lancer Centre Saturday night. The Lancers battled through some struggles early in the first two sets to sweep their rivals from up the 401 and keep their season alive.
 
STATS
Luca Nastase was the game’s most dangerous scorer with 14 points on 12 kills. The Mustangs were paced by Blake Fenwick’s 11.5 points and 10 kills.
 
Gustavo Siqueira had a fantastic night from the service line, with four aces on the match. Fenwick had Western’s only ace.
 
Steven Abrams put forth a fantastic defensive effort, with 12 digs on the night to lead all players. Western was led by Fenwick and Jason Guy, who each had nine.
 
GAME FLOW
The Lancers opened the game caught in a back-and-forth affair in the first set. When the Mustangs looked to get a little separation, the Lancers capitalized on an attack error when they followed it up with a service ace from Zach Albert to make it a 7-6 game. Adams again made an impact, stopping the Mustang’s service in a key moment before Windsor took their first lead of the game, 12-11. Later, Adams made his presence felt, ending a long rally with a strong kill to give the Lancers the lead, 17-16. The Lancers kept the pressure up, forcing the Mustangs to call their final timeout of the set with Windsor winning 22-17. The timeout did little as the Gustavo Siqueira put over a kill that was too much to handle, Luca Nastase inched the Lancers closer forcing the ball out of bounds off a Mustang. After a tight start, the Lancers took the first set 25-19 to go up 1-0.
 
The second set was a seesaw battle in the early going as well. Neither side could find much separation, knotted up at 6-6. The Lancers finally opened the game up with Zach Adams notching his second ace of the night, while Siqueira combined with Chase Bridges-Hunter for a monster block, putting Windsor up 12-8. The Lancers extended their lead to 17-12 later in the set with back-to-back kills from Luca Nastase, forcing the Mustangs into their first timeout of the set. The break didn’t cool down the Lancers though, as Western called their second timeout down 20-13. Coming out of the second break, the Mustangs clawed back, making it a 22-17 set, forcing Lancer’s head coach James Gravelle to call timeout. Despite some errors, Anthony DeGirolamo served up an Ace to take the set, 25-20, giving the Lancers a 2-0 lead.
 
Windsor came out hot in the third set, taking an early lead behind an ace from Siqueira and some strong play from Albert, and Nastase. The hot start culminated in an early timeout for the Mustangs as Western trailed 7-2. The timeout did the trick and slowed the Lancers down, however the Lancers maintained a three-point lead. Despite a late Western rally, Siqueira’s three late aces set up Luca Nastase for the win as the Lancers took it, 25-20 winning the match 3-0.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers advance to the OUA semi-finals next Saturday, March 4th. Stay tuned to www.GoLancers.ca for all your playoff updates as the information becomes available.