After finishing the regular season in second place with a 16-6 record and earning a first round playoff bye the Western Mustangs women's basketball team will tip-off their post-season schedule on Saturday afternoon as the welcome the third-place Laurier Golden Hawks to Alumni Hall for an OUA West Semi-Final matchup.

The Mustangs have proven themselves as one of the top teams in the OUA during the regular season and hope to have the same presence in the coming rounds of the playoffs. Western's offence is powered by the CIS' second-leading scorer in guard Jenny Vaughan. The Dundas native averaged 23 points per game this year and closed out the final regular season of her university career in style, becoming the first OUA women's basketball player to break 500 points scored in a season and setting a new single-season scoring record with 506 points.

While Vaughan is the team's undisputed scoring leader the front court duo of Melissa Rondinelli and Katelyn Leddy control Western's rebounding efforts, averaging 6.7 and 9.5 rebounds per game respectively while also adding 10.9 and 11.4 points per contest.

Western vs. Laurier- Saturday, February 22 – Watch Live on Mustangs TV

Saturday's contest will be the third time this season that Western and Laurier have gone head to head with the season series split 1-1 between the two teams. The Mustangs won their most recent matchup, defeating the Golden Hawks by eight points in the regular season finale that decided which of the two squads would emerge as the second seed in the OUA West.

Laurier has one of the most balanced attacks in the OUA with nine players averaging more than five points per game, led by senior guard Laura Doyle who scored 10.5 points per contest. Similar to their scoring efforts, multiple Golden Hawks players are involved in the team's rebounding efforts, with fourth-year forward Doreen Bonsu grabbing 5.5 boards per game followed by a trio of players all averaging at least 4.4 per game.

Home court advantage could prove to be a major factor for Western as the Mustangs are 9-1 at home while the Golden Hawks have gone 6-4 on the road including suffering some recent away game trouble as they've lost their last three road contests.

Game time for Saturday's semi-final is set for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 22 at Alumni Hall. The winner of Saturday's contest will move on to face the winner of the McMaster-Windsor semi-final next weekend in the OUA West Final.