LONDON - Ont. - The Western Mustangs defeated the Ryerson Rams to remain perfect on the season winning 3-0 (25-14, 27-25, 25-20) at Alumni Hall on Friday night.

Outstanding serving by Andre Begin and great defensive blocking by Western carried the Mustangs to victory.

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The Mustangs are 4-0 on the season, outscoring their opponents 12-2 in sets won.

Mathieu Poulin of Winnipeg led the Mustangs with 12 kills, three solo blocks and three assisted blocks. The Mustangs team combined for 14.5 blocks on the night and were difficult to score against at the net.
Freshman Garrett May added eight kills and two solo blocks and two assisted blocks.

Western, ranked No. 6 in the CIS, handily took the first set, building an early 4-0 lead and leading for the entire set.

Poor communication by Western defensively gave Ryerson a chance to climb back into the game, but lots of unforced errors ended any run for Ryerson.

Western led at the second side-out 16-11, and Begin's serving allowed the Mustangs to close out scoring six straight points to end the set 25-14. While Begin did not record a serving ace on the game, his well-hit serves resulted in at many Western runs.

In the second set, Ryerson built a 7-4 lead but Western placed deep attacks to claw back into the set, forcing Ryerson to dig deep in their own court, limiting the power of their attacking attempts.

Ryerson carried an 8-5 lead into the first sideout, but Western inched back point by point, forcing a Ryerson timeout at 11-7.

The Rams went on another run to regain a six-point lead at 15-9,

Western crawled back within two points to force another Ryerson timeout with the Rams leading 16-12 at the second sideout.

Some timely kills by Poulin and great blocking and attacking by Phil James gave Western life and eventually the set.

Poulin's monster kill cut the lead to 20-18, and then James came up with terrific block to make it 20-19.
Some Ryerson mishits and net-balls coupled with a serving error allowed Western to creep back down two points at 24-22.

James smashed another monster kill to make it 26-25 Mustangs, and then anticlimatically, Mathew Waite delicately delivered an innocent kill for set point.
Western won the second set 27-25.

In the third, the teams rallied back and forth for a 7-7 tie. The Mustangs took the first sideout and then never looked back.

Leading by three points for most of the remainder of the set, Garrett May played great defensive ball with a key solo block to end a brief Ryerson run.

A slew of unforced errors from rookie Rams Aleksa Miladinovic and Sven Curic and teammate Luka Milosevic derailed Ryerson in the third.

Leading 20-16 after a Waite block, Western moved to set point and Begin came in to serve for the match.

Sean McKay ended the match with a touch of trickery, catching the Ryerson defence off guard on a light kill and face set on the winning point.

Western was great on attacks with a 27.5 kill percentage, with the Rams were a measley 7.6 per cent, committing 25 attacking errors.

The players of the game were May for Western and Greg McDonald for Ryerson.

Western hosts York on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.