Western Mustangs Win 3-2 Against Waterloo Warriors In Five Set Game

The Western Mustangs come into today’s game after a tough loss yesterday against the Waterloo Warriors. The Mustangs would go onto win the first set with the Warriors winning the next two. Western was able to secure the fourth set win which pushed the game into five sets. After a close-fought final set, the Mustangs took the win. 
 
Josiah Esau wins the Mustangs the first point of the game after he tips the ball over the net to surprise the Warriors. Waterloo equalises with the next point. The Warriors push ahead in the points. A kill from Kendall Homenick keeps the Mustangs close behind in the points. A kill from Cade Smith puts the Mustangs one point behind the Warriors with a score of 6-5. A long serve from Waterloo gives the point right back to the Mustangs. the Warriors push ahead in the points after a few errors from the Mustangs. Kendall Homenick gets two consecutive kills to bring the Mustangs closer to the Warriors. The Mustangs equalise at 14. Once the Mustangs push ahead in the points, Waterloo calls for a timeout. The Warriors win the first point after the timeout after a ball goes long from a Mustang serve. The two teams trade points with the Mustangs maintaining a slightly point lead. The Mustangs get within four points of the first set and the Warriors call for a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, a double block from Jonah Millard and Josiah Esau puts the team within three of the first set win. The Warriors put the pressure on the Mustangs, coming within three points of Western. Kendall Homenick wins the set for the Mustangs with a kill. The final score of the set is 21-25 to the Mustangs. 
 
The Western Mustangs win the first point of the second set. The two teams trade points early in the second set with a kill from Cade Smith putting the team ahead by one. Smith gets another kill one point later to push that point gap to two. After the Mustangs put the score at 5-8, Waterloo calls for a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Warriors gain some momentum. Despite Waterloo equalizing the score, a long serve puts the Mustangs ahead in the points again. Waterloo goes on to score a series of points to put themselves ahead again. Kendall Homenick sends a ball over the net which goes off the hands of a Warrior and out of bounds to bring the team within two. A ball goes long for Waterloo in the next point to bring the Mustangs back within one. However, the Warriors are able to break away in the points yet again. When they increase the point gap to four, Western calls for a timeout. The Warriors get within five points of the set win, but a ball sent out of bounds by the Warriors puts the Mustangs one point behind. Both teams work hard to fight for each point that is played. A timeout is called when the Warriors get within one point of the second set. The Warriors take the second set with a score of 25-21. 
 
The Mustangs win the first two points of the third set. Kendall Homenick gets a kill early in the third set to put the Mustangs three points ahead of the Warriors. A huge block from Amit Sayal puts another point on the board for the Mustangs. The teams trade service errors after a timeout is called. A kill from Cade Smith puts the Musangs four points ahead of the Warriors. Josiah Esau sends a ball across the court to keep the Mustangs in the lead. The Warriors equalize at 12 points and again at 14 with both teams looking to push ahead in the points. When the Mustangs get within five points of the set win with the Warriors one point behind, a timeout is called. Waterloo wins the first point coming out of the timeout with Kendall Homenick adding another point to the Mustang scoreboard with a kill that finds the middle of the court. The Waterloo Warriors get within two points of the set win and the Mustangs call for a timeout. Despite the Warriors getting within one point of the set win, the Mustangs maintain pressure on them but some miscommunication between the team puts the final set score at 25-22 to the Warriors. 
 
Western win the first point of the fourth set but a long serve from Western puts the Warriors on the board. A kill from Blake Fenwick secures the second point for the Mustangs to put them in the lead early into the fourth set. The Warriors attempt to get the ball past the Western block but are unsuccessful which puts the Mustangs in the lead again. Blake Fenwick gets a block that puts the Mustangs three points ahead of the Warriors. Western come within seven points of the set win after a triple block stops the Warriors’ attack. A double block from Cade Smith and Kendall Homenick puts the Mustangs within five points of the set win. The Warriors put the pressure on the Mustangs to come within three points on the scoreboard. A kill from Blake Fenwick puts the Mustangs within three points of the set win. A long serve from the Warriors makes the gap to the win two points for Western. A kill from Amit Sayal puts the team one point away from the set win. A set from Josiah Esau and a kill from Kendall Homenick gets the set win for the Mustangs with a score of 21-25. 
 
Blake Fenwick wins the first point for the Mustangs after he sends the ball into a Waterloo block which goes out of bounds. The Warriors equalise and push ahead by one, but the Mustangs equalise. A service ace from Jonah Millard puts the Mustangs one ahead. The Mustangs push ahead by three points and the Warriors call for a timeout. A short serve from Waterloo puts the score at 3-6 to the Mustangs. a block from Western makes the score 5-8 to the Mustangs. The teams switch sides. The Mustangs get within five points of the set win, but the Warriors work to close that point gap to one. The Mustangs get within two points of the set win after a closely fought point seeing both teams work to keep the ball alive. A service ace from Jonah Millard puts the team within one point of the set win. The Mustangs take the fifth set 10-15. 
 
When speaking to Head Coach Jim Sage after the game, he explained that after the game was pushed to five sets that “we were talking kind of jokingly in the huddle how we felt like we’d been in the gym for like ten hours. With yesterday’s five setter and today – it felt so long. It was like a time warp!” On looking ahead to Brock next week, Sage added it would be a “tough one. Strong team, on the road. It’ll be a difficult task and we know that. We needed that win so bad for so many different reasons. It was so similar to last night too where we played a good fourth set, now we’re going through five again. Then the luck of the ball started to go our way a little bit, finally because it wasn’t. Other than the calls that were terrible, the ball was just not being nice to us and then it was. They served into the net. Jonah got an ace … we’re getting ball luck now.” He ended by saying he was really proud of the guys. 
 
The team will take on the Brock Badgers on the road next Friday in St. Catherines at 8:00pm.