London, ON – The Mustangs Men’s Volleyball team battled their way to a 3-2 win over the Brock Badgers Friday night.
Western took the first two sets but Brock returned the favour, winning sets three and four, forcing a fifth set that the Mustangs heavily dominated.
“I wasn’t happy with the first two sets really,” said Mustangs Head Coach Jim Sage “I was telling the guys that going into the third set that they need to play much tighter and they didn’t really listen and Brock took all the momentum and ran with it,”.
The start of the match saw both sides trade points through most of the first half of the first set, with the Mustangs holding a two-point lead at 14-12 and Brock called their first timeout of the night. The Mustangs went on a 6-2 run later in the set to push the lead to 24-20, including a thunderous service ace from Cade Smith. Brock responded with four straight points of their own to tie the opening set at 24-24, forcing Western to call a timeout. Both sides would take the next two points and the set remained tied. Western would finish out the set securing the win 27-25.
M ?? END OF 1ST SET Mustangs power their way through the end of the set and take the opener 27-25.
Western would take an early lead in the second set, opening a 9-6 advantage, Brock would take the first timeout of the set with the score at 11-7 in favour of the Mustangs. Midway through the set, Mustangs Left Side Cade Smith notched his 200th kill of the season for the Mustangs. He ranks 1st in the OUA for total kills and kills per set. Western would end up winning the set 25-21.
M ?? MILESTONE POINT With this kill, Cade Smith has 200 on the season for the Mustangs, ranking 1st in the OUA for total kills and kills per set.
“He’s been outstanding, like beyond belief and I think he set the bar so high,” said Sage of Smith “He’s been sensational, like beyond belief. Better than any other player I’ve seen here at Western in the sense of how good his progression has gotten.”
The third set saw the Badgers flash some highlight reel plays, including a diving save Nanle Yusuf that took him into their bench, and later Adrian Gaspar just slid his hand under a Mustangs kill attempt that resulted in Brock getting the point and opening an 8-5 lead. Luca Stojanovic subbed into the match and secured a pair of points for the Mustangs midway through the set and cut the Brock lead to 15-14. Both sides remained close throughout the remainder of the set, and Brock took the advantage at 24-23 and Western called a timeout. Brock took the last two points of the set to win 26-24 and keep the match alive.
After Western opened the fourth set with the first two points, Brock went on a 5-0 run to move into the lead. After the Badgers kept the momentum going, pushing the lead to 12-7, Western answered back to cut the lead to 13-11, making Brock call a timeout to reset. Western wasn’t able to get a rally going through the remainder of the set and Brock evened the match at 2-2 with a 25-17 set win.
The fifth set saw Western come out with a determined effort, taking the first five points and opening up an 8-3 lead as the teams switched sides. The Mustangs kept their momentum going, including a service ace from Jared Doran to push the Western lead to 13-7. The Mustangs would split the remaining two points with Brock and secure the 15-9 set win and the match.
“With the nature of volleyball, fifth sets are fifth sets. It’s a whole new ball game, and if you can let it go, because we weren’t very good in the third and fourth sets, said Sage “I was really pleased with how we dictated play in the fifth and took all their momentum away again and played well,”
KEY STATS
Cade Smith – 13 kills, 2 service aces and 6 digs
Conor Doran – 12 kills, 3 service aces and 7 digs
NEXT GAME
The Mustangs are back at Alumni Hall Saturday afternoon against the Badgers for a 4pm start.
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