London, ON – The Mustangs returned home to Alumni Hall for the first time in the 2023 calendar year, falling 3-0 to the Brock Badgers.
Western and Brock both came into this one with identical 10-1 records on the season, with the Mustangs being the team to suffer their second loss of the season with 25-23, 25-11 and 25-18 set losses.
Janelle Albert led the ‘Stangs with 9 kills while Rachel Gray and Devin Gerth followed with 8 and 6 respectively.
“There was a lot of preparation for this game,” said outside hitter Devin Gerth. “We didn’t have a game last weekend so we took the time to prepare and scout this team a lot, because this isn’t a team you can just come in and play. We wanted to win this game really bad, so there was a lot of heart that went into this game.”
“The girls were excited,” added head coach Melissa Bartlett. “We haven’t played the most challenging opponents [recently] which is both a positive and a challenge heading into a match like this. We were excited and prepared, but we just didn’t execute as well as we wanted to.”
The battle remained close to start, with the team’s exchanging points early on before the Badgers took a 5-2 lead.
Some missed serves from Western helped extend the visitors lead, however the ‘Stangs were able to prevent a significant gain eventually coming back within one point at 14-13.
A long rally ended by a powerful kill from Rachel Gray tied things up at 16, electrifying the crowd in the process. It was another kill from Gray that tied things up yet again for the purple and white, this time at 20 as the set neared its end. Gray finished the set with 7 kills.
W??l END OF 1ST SET
A hard-fought first-set goes the way of the Badgers as they take the opening set 25-23. Rachel Gray leads the Mustangs with 7 kills.
Despite their efforts, the Mustangs dropped the opening set 25-23.
The visitors in red took the first two points of the second set before Hannah Joo got Western on the board.
Finding themselves down 10-3, Gerth finished off a rally approaching 43 seconds long to energize her team and send the stands rumbling. Brock would continue to ride their momentum however, eventually taking the set in dominant fashion 25-11.
W??l END OF 2ND SET
The Mustangs drop the second set 25-11 to the Brock Badgers.
Gerth off the block got the purple and white on the board first to start the third, and got the kill for a 3-2 lead later on, as they looked to climb back into this match.
“The first set looked easy to us,” said Gerth. “The score was tight but that was Western volleyball. In the second and third set I felt that it was difficult to get a point and we were working so hard just for one point. It was disheartening a bit. I didn’t think we played poorly, I just think things weren’t going in our favour.”
Similar to the second set, the Badgers were able to pull away and establish a lead at 15-8. They would continue to fire and eventually won the game off an ace with a 25-18 third set.
“We have to have better offense,” said Bartlett. “Our offensive efficiency has been really strong all year. We have to find ways to maintain that against better defenses because that’s what we are going to see the rest of our season.”
Western will be looking to rebound as they welcome Brock back to Alumni Hall tomorrow afternoon.
“We’ve got depth in our roster so we can always consider making some different changes there,” said Bartlett on Saturday’s matchup. “We’ve also got the benefit of looking at film from today and seeing which areas of our game plan did we not do as well as we wanted to and do better tomorrow.”
“We need to be more confident in ourselves,” concluded Gerth. “We were a little timid, almost like we were scared to make a mistake. We just need to have confidence in ourselves and confidence in who’s beside us because in the end if you trust your teammates you’re going to win games.”
The two team’s face a quick turnaround and will play again tomorrow at 2pm at Alumni Hall. Visit westernmustangs.ca to purchase tickets or tune into OUA.tv
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