LONDON, Ont. - Western experienced a disappointing 3-0 loss (24-26, 23-25, 25-27) in a close game against McMaster on Oct. 31.

In the spirit of Hallowe’en, a number of costumed spectators attended Alumni Hall to witness the Mustangs play the Marauders, a team nationally ranked at second place.

They were treated with a great match.

All three sets were close and exciting, with Western losing by only two points in each game. 

In the third game, Western was poised to win with a score of 24-23, but unfortunately a ball blocked by the Mustangs went out of bounds, evening the score to 24-24.  After McMaster’s serve over, Matthew Gibson (Oshawa, Ont.) set the ball for Kyle Bryce (Guelph, Ont.) who finished with a kill to bring Western into the lead again, 25-24.  A missed dig by Eric Simon (London, Ont.) allowed Mac to tie the game, 25-25, and in the next rally Simon’s attack attempt was blocked by the Marauders and unrecovered by the Mustangs.  McMaster took the lead, 26-25, and, in the final rally of the game, some scrambling at the net cost Western the game.

With the win, Mac maintained their undefeated record (4-0), while Western registered their first loss (2-1).

Simon led the way for Western with 10 kills, followed by Mathieu Poulin (Winnipeg, Man.) with seven kills.  However, both players had almost as many attack errors, Simon with seven and Poulin with five, primarily caused by strong blocking by McMaster.

A number of service errors over the course of the match also cost the Mustangs 16 points.

Jeremy Groenveld (Welland, Ont.) was a dominant hitter for the Marauders with 15 kills and 34 total attacks.

Western will likely be hungry for wins next weekend in their matchups on the road on Nov. 6 against York and Laurier on Nov. 7.