LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs men's volleyball team looked to recover from their three game losing-streak against the York Lions Saturday night. However, the Mustangs were not able to match York's solid offense and were defeated in four sets (20-25, 25-19, 20-25, 19-25) Saturday night by the Lions at Alumni Hall.

With the loss, the Mustangs hold a 4-4 record on the season and take a significant hit in standings to place them in seventh place in the OUA. York improves their season record to 5-3 to surpass the Mustangs and currently sit in fourth.
 
"I thought we played better tonight [than in last night's game]," says Coach Jim Sage about his team's performance. "York's a good team, and they're going to be around at the end, and a dangerous playoff team. Our focus now is going to be making playoffs. We had a great start to the season and now it's slowly turning to the worse. But we're still alive, we'll breathe again, and want to finish off on a good note."
 
After opening up the first set with an unforced attack error from York, the teams traded points until three consecutive kills from the Mustangs pushed the Lions into a deficit. A kill from Josh Henderson, followed directly by multiple Mustang errors allowed the Lions to pull ahead for the first time in the set at 8-10.
 
Extending their lead to five points at 10-15, the Lions quickly pounced on holes in the Mustang defense to exploit known weak spots. Continuing to be defeated by unforced errors, the Mustangs were forced into a time-out at 15-22.
 
Despite regaining the serve at 17-23 the Mustangs were unable to recover, as the first set ended at 20-25 after a serving error from Justin Scapinello.
 
Again opening up the scoreboard with an exchange of points, the Mustangs pulled ahead by focusing on block coverage and reducing errors at the net. Forced into a time-out at 10-5, the Lions struggled against the newfound confidence of the Mustangs.
 
Plagued by unforced errors, York forced themselves further into a point deficit while the Mustangs capitalized on their doubts.
 
Despite being stalled at in the low twenties by a sudden onslaught of powerful attacks by York, the Mustangs pushed through to end the set 25-19 on a York error.
  
Unwilling to allow the third set to get away, the Lions refocused to close the gap to 11-8 after adapting to the Mustang blocks. As the point gap began to close, both teams relied on strong defense and coverage to keep rallies alive.
 
York fought back to bring the score to 16-16. Going point-for-point, York finally gained the substantial lead they needed to bring the score 20-23 after numerous Mustang errors.  Ending on an attack from Josh Henderson, the Lions took the third set 20-25.
 
Consecutive Mustang errors opened up the fourth set, but still couldn't keep Western from edging slightly ahead of York early on.
 
With the match tied up at 9-9 and again at 13-13, the respective desires of the two teams to extend or end the match after four sets was evident. Exchanging points again, the Mustangs were forced into a time-out at 15-16. York, extending their lead to three points, exploited the defensive holes and communication difficulties discovered in previous sets to force the Mustangs into another time-out at 18-22.
 
Unable to combat the flurry of kills coming from the opposite side of the court, the Mustangs lost the fourth set at 19-25, ending the match, after a kill from Ray Szeto.
 
In addition to taking the final shot of the game, Szeto topped the scoresheet with 21.5 total points from 18 kills, one service ace, one solo block, and three assisted blocks. Veteran Mustang Justin Scapinello followed closely behind with 21 points from 18 kills, one service ace, one solo block, and two assisted blocks.
 
The Mustangs next head to Toronto for on Friday November 28 to take on the Ryerson Rams, followed by a game at the University of Toronto on November 29. Friday's game is set to begin at 6:00 p.m., with Saturday's beginning at 8:00 p.m.