The Western Mustangs took on the Waterloo Warriors today at 2:00pm. The Mustangs were coming into this game with a win yesterday against the Warriors and looked to secure their second win of the week today. The game was pushed into five sets with the Mustangs taking the game win with a score of 2-3.
Waterloo takes the opening point of the first set but a long serve from Waterloo puts the Mustangs on the board. A service ace from Claire Stewart puts the Mustangs ahead. The Mustangs maintain the point lead, pushing ahead by four points after a service ace from Ava Ebert. The Mustangs find their stride, working to increase the point distance between the two teams and pushing that to seven. Service errors from Waterloo push the Mustangs further ahead. A kill from Ebert puts the Mustangs at 18 points to Waterloo’s 10, causing Waterloo to call for a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Western win the first point getting six points away from the set win. After a serve from Tessa McDermid, a double block from Hannah Joo and Ava Ebert put the team four points away from the set win. The Mustangs get within two points of the set win and Waterloo calls for a timeout. A further block from Ebert coming out of the timeout puts the Mustangs within one point of the set win. A ball sent out of bounds by Western puts a point on the board for Waterloo. The Mustangs take the first set 12-25.
A service ace for Hannah Joo puts the Mustangs on the board first in the second set. The teams trade points early in the second set. The Warriors work to push ahead in the points, but the Mustangs maintain a close distance behind. Lael Harrison gets a ball through the Waterloo block to push ahead in the points by one. This makes the score 8-9. The Warriors push ahead in the points by three but after a long rally with both teams making excellent digs to keep the ball alive, it is tapped over the net by the Mustangs which decreases the point difference to two. When the Mustangs come within one point of the Warriors, the Warriors call for a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Warriors win the first point, but the Mustangs go on to win the next. The Mustangs equalize the score at 15. The next two consecutive points are won by the Mustangs. A long serve from the Warriors puts the Mustangs within seven points of the set win and a ball tapped over the net by Lael Harrison puts them six away. A series of strong serves from the Waterloo Warriors sees the teams equalize at 19. They equalize again at 20. After Hannah Joo sets the ball, Lael Harrison finds an empty spot in the middle of the court to keep the energy up on the Mustangs’ side. The Mustangs get within one point of the set win after a ball is sent out of bounds by the Warriors. The teams equalize at 24. The Warriors tap a ball over the net which puts the Warriors ahead by one. A timeout is called by Western. A ball sent long by the Warriors equalizes the points again. Coming out of the timeout, both teams work to win each point with Waterloo taking the second set 27-25.
A short serve from the Warriors puts the Mustangs on the board early in the third set. The Waterloo Warriors push ahead by one after a kill finds the far right hand corner of the court. A short serve from the Warriors gives the Mustangs another point but a block from Western that goes out of bounds puts the Warriors one ahead. The Warriors go on to push ahead by four, gaining some momentum early in the third set. The Western Mustangs call for a timeout when the Warriors push five points ahead. Coming out of the timeout, the Mustangs win the first point. The Mustangs close the point gap to three. A double block from Ava Ebert and Hannah Joo fires up Alumni Hall, getting the energy high. When the Warriors come within five of the set win, the Mustangs call for a timeout. The Mustangs win the first point coming out of the timeout. The Mustangs maintain their pressure on the Warriors coming out of the timeout to close the point gap to two. The Warriors come within one point of the set win after a kill that finds the right-hand corner. Ava Ebert responds with a kill that finds the right-hand corner of the Warriors’ side of the court. A short serve from the Mustangs puts the final set score at 25-22.
Harrison wins the first point of the fourth set after a kill that finds the far right-hand corner of the court. The teams equalize at six points, but the Warriors push ahead by two. Hannah Joo taps a ball over the next to surprise the Warriors and bring the Mustangs within one point of Waterloo. The Mustangs then go on to equalize at 8. The Mustangs gain some momentum and are able to push ahead in the points. After the ball is set by Hannah Joo, Ava Ebert gets a kill to put the Mustangs three points ahead. After the Warriors push ahead in the points, the Warriors call for a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Mustangs win two consecutive points, putting the pressure on the Warriors. This prompts another timeout called. The Mustangs maintain their point lead coming to the end of the fourth set, coming within five points of the set win. A block from Hannah Joo and Ava Ebert puts them four away from the set win. After another timeout, the Mustangs win the first point. Ava Ebert puts the team within one point of the set win. The Mustangs take the fourth set 21-25.
The Mustangs take the first point of the fifth set after a ball is sent long by the Warriors. Lael Harrison tips the ball over the net to secure the second point for the Mustangs. After a long rally, they take the third point too. The Warriors go on to take the next two points but a short serve from the Warriors gives the point back to the Mustangs. Lael Harrison gets a service ace to put the Mustangs four points ahead early in this fifth set. The Mustangs push ahead to make the score 8-3. The teams switch sides. A block from Jade Longlad wins the Mustangs the first point coming out of the timeout. This causes Waterloo to call for a timeout. A block from Jade Longlad puts the Mustangs within three points of the fifth set win. The Mustangs get within one point of the set win after a ball goes out of bounds off the fingertips of a Warrior. The Mustangs take the fifth set after the Warriors send a ball into the net. The final set score is 5-15 to the Mustangs.
Speaking to Melissa Bartlett after the game, when asked how proud she was on the team for really digging in in those fourth and fifth sets to keep momentum going, Coach Bartlett explained that “pride and connectedness is probably how we’d describe as a team how we feel about this weekend. Set four and five we had to dig deep, we had to find another level. Honestly, we were tired. We have so few subs – normally we have a lot of depth we can use. So, everyone had to reach in and dig deep and pull; out a little bit more energy, execution.” The Western Mustangs varied their intensity of hitting today and when asked if that was something that they were focused on coming into this game, Coach Bartlett went on to say that “yeah, we did. We kind of had a little bit of a different offensive game plan that we did, and it was great to see our team be so flexible to implement right away and to make some changes because that’s going to be a key thing for us in the future.”
The Western Mustangs will take on the Brock Badgers next Friday in St. Catherines at 6:00pm.
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