Mustangs fall in straight sets to Brock

London, ON – The Women’s Volleyball team fell to Brock in straight sets Friday night at Alumni Hall.

The Mustangs faced a formidable opponent in Brock Friday night, as the Badgers sit atop of the West division with a 7-0 record.

The caliber of their opponent didn’t scare them off however, as the purple and white got off to a firing start against the undefeated side, quickly taking a 7-3 lead and forcing a timeout from the visitors.

Janelle Albert would help extend the lead to 11-8 thanks to a huge kill and a block, sending the bench into cheers.

“We changed a few things from our McMaster game and it really showed on the court with our blocking and our passing,” said Albert. “So I thought we were able to fight really hard even though we did lose.”

The visitors would push back with a string of strong play, tying it up at 20. An exchange of points would eventually see Brock with set-point, which they won for a 25-23 first set victory.

The Badgers took an early second set lead at 7-3, but Western would continue to fight and keep it close. Albert would put up a huge block followed by a kill to erase the deficit by two at 13-11.

The visitors would go on to build a commanding lead, but the purple and white wouldn’t give the set to them easily. The Mustangs would go on to save three set points, complimented by an Emily Tsiandoulas ace, before dropping the set 25-19 and forcing a do-or-die third.

“It’s about resilience,” said coach Melissa Bartlett on her team’s ability to keep fighting. “We started to build some of those drills into practice, and that’s really exciting to see that transfer.”

“Our team just fights for each other. We go out there and each one of us wants to win for ourselves, for the person playing beside us, our coaches and the people cheering for us,” added Albert. “Everyone just wants to be there for each other, and I think that’s what really keeps us fighting.”

As Brock looked to claim a lead early in the third, Western stayed close, with Albert putting up a big kill and subsequent ace to make the score 5-4 for Brock, while eliciting cheers from the bench and home crowd who were not ready to give up.

“We have some key leaders like Kate [Van Camp] and Janelle [Albert] really stepping up and taking control of the team in those huddles,” said Bartlett. “That’s huge and so important going forward.”

The purple and white would continue to tie up Brock’s attempts at taking a significant lead, but ultimately couldn’t mount a comeback and fell 25-22 in the third and final set.

Despite the loss, the Mustangs battled hard against a tough side, and acknowledged their positive play in their post-game huddle.

“I think we really pushed them to the limit,” said Bartlett. “They’re a very strong team, so I think that actually gave us a lot of confidence. The results didn’t matter, we were focused on how we played, and we played well.”

Despite having just played the Badgers, the Mustangs are eager to play them again in two days time, as they know they have what it takes to challenge the first-place side.

“Against a really strong team like that, just a small reduction in errors can really make a difference,” said Bartlett. “Otherwise, we’d like to play them again right now and see if the result would be different because I really like how we matched up against them.”

“We’ll come out hard,” concluded Albert.

Western drops to 5-3 on the season, while Brock extends their unbeaten run to 8-0.

The Mustangs will travel to St. Catharines on Sunday and look to rebound against Brock for their next match, starting at 5pm. The action can be viewed at OUA.tv