Box Score LONDON, Ont. – Western's women's volleyball team were defeated 3-1 by the Waterloo Warriors on Friday evening in their 2013-2014 season home-opener at Alumni Hall.
The Mustangs, now 0-2 on the season, fell to the Warriors 21-25, 27-25, 20-25 and 22-25 in a close contest in Western's first home game of the year.
 
"We were excited, we had a really good game plan and I think we executed well," said head coach Melissa Bartlett. "The bottom line is we missed too many serves and we put ourselves at a disadvantage, so that's what we're going to work on and hopefully come out strong in tomorrow's game."
 
After a slow start and an early 4-0 disadvantage the Mustangs played catch-up for most of the first set and would use all of their time outs to try and take the lead from the Warriors. Despite lessening the gap to just one point at 22-21 it wouldn't be enough to stop the Warriors as they took the first set by a score of 25-21.
 
The second set would see the Mustangs take the board first before trading points with the Warriors before gaining a 17-16 advantage, causing Waterloo to take their first time out of the game. The Warriors would side-out after the break and trade points with the Mustangs before reversing the one-point lead to take a 23-22 advantage of their own. The Mustangs tied the game at 24-24 after calling their second time out of the match to take the game-point advantage, closing out the set 27-25 to sit tied with the Warriors at one set each on the match.
 
Despite being first on the board and first to five in the third set, the Mustangs would be unable to keep the lead as the Warriors tied the game 10-10. Although the Mustangs would not let the Warriors take an advantage as Western was first to fifteen with a three-point lead, the teams continued to trade points until the Warriors were first to 20 and continued to push to take the third set 25-20.
 
The fourth set would see the Warriors leading by two at the 10-point mark and although the Mustangs would continue to work, Waterloo lengthened their lead until a Western timeout at 16-12. Both squads would fight point-for-point until the Warriors once again took a four-point lead to be first to 20. Western forced another Waterloo timeout at 20-19 when the Mustangs turned up the heat offensively and continued to battle after the timeout the tie the Warriors at 22-22. Despite some long rallies and impressive plays from both sides, it would be the Warriors to take the set and the match as they defeated the Western squad 3-1 in their season home-opener.
 
Leading the Mustangs in the match was Serena Smith with eight kills and eight digs, while Kenzie Macdonald with eight kills, seven digs, and two aces. Close behind were Candice Scott with seven kills and two aces and Stephanie Kreuter with seven kills, six digs and one ace on the day.
 
The Mustangs are back in action on Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. when they host the McMaster Marauders at Alumni Hall. Fans can watch all of the action live on Mustangs TV.