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Mustangs squeeze by to win seventh straight

Back and forth is the best way to describe the fight between the Western Mustangs and the Windsor Lancers on Friday night.

The Mustangs won the game in five sets with the Lancers putting up a good fight.

“It was a five set thriller. We were really happy to take a team of Western’s calibre to five and it helps us to benchmark where we are in our league and what we need to do to beat a team like Western,” Shawn Lippert, Lancers head coach, said.

Windsor started off strong winning the first set 25-21, but the lead was short lived as Western came back and won the next two.

“Friday’s game was a tough battle just like we knew it would be. Whether we won or not we knew it wouldn’t be over in three,” Kyle Williamson, the Lancers outside hitter, said.

The Lancers’ loss of steam seemed to be their downfall in the third set.

“Windsor always has a lot of energy. They came out fired up to play and as a result won the first set [...] Being a real energy team, they are susceptible to crashing. That happened in the third set where [they] came out with no energy and lost 25-10,” Matt Waite, Mustangs middle, explained.

Windsor came back in the fourth set with their middle Scott Hickman earning five of the last seven points, finishing the set 25-21.

“I feel like they also thought it could possibly be an easy win for them coming to Windsor, and that’s not a good state of mind to be in before any game no matter who the opponent, but they definitely are a great team and a big contender to win it all this year,” Williamson said.

However, the Lancers proved not strong enough for the Mustangs. The fifth set was back and forth for the first ten points, but the Mustangs took it with a 15-11 finish.

“The last three points in the fifth set at 11-11 we made errors. There was a ball hit out of bounds on a defensive transition, putting the score at 13-11, and then there was an overpass that put it at 14-11. When you have that happen you are not going to win games,” Lippert said.

Both teams played a strong game with Ryan Le and Kyle Williamson standing out for the Lancers and Alan Screaton and Matt Waite shining for Western.

“Waite played extremely well. We were concerned with Phil in the middle and Garrett on the left side and then [Waite] came in and played extremely well,” Lippert explained. “That is what makes [Western] dangerous, when your go to guys are not playing well or are being isolated on the defence, other guys have the opportunity to step up and he definitely did.”

Waite scored a total of 21 points, followed by Garrett May with 15 kills and 16 points and Alan Screaton with 10 kills and nine digs totaling 14 points.

“Alan Screaton stood out [in the game]. He hit very efficiently, had several aces and made some clutch plays in the fifth set to help us win the game,” Waite said.

The Mustangs have remained undefeated this season, but it hasn’t always been a walk in the park.

“Our season has been very successful so far, but it has not been easy. We have put in a lot of hard work at practice to get to where we are today and we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us,” Waite said. “We have faced some very competitive teams, like McMaster, Windsor and Queen’s, that have tested us and shown us that in order to stay ahead we need to give 110 per cent at each practice.”

The Mustangs currently sit on top of the Ontario University Athletics standing with a perfect season.

“It feels really good to be first in the OUA, but we are not going to become complacent,” Waite said. “We take our season one week at a time and focus on what is important in the present.”

Western returns home Friday to take on the fifth place OUA team the Waterloo Warriors.

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