Box Score WATERLOO, Ont. – With six consecutive wins in hand, the Western Mustangs men's volleyball team headed to Waterloo on Friday in the hopes of a grabbing a seventh and accomplished just that, defeating the Warriors 3-2 by set scores of (25-23, 25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13).

With the win, the men's team has now clinched second place in the OUA and therefore earns a bye into the OUA final four, giving extra emphasis to what was already a big and exciting victory. 

The first set saw both teams neck in neck all the way up until they were tied at 23 all. With only a two points left for the win, Western took the set 25-23 using their strong offensive skills to produce the necessary kills.

The Warriors took an immediate four-point lead at the beginning of the second set with help from some strong offensive play and by the technical time-out of the second set they were leading 16-14. Western continued to work on closing the gap between the two teams' scores but Waterloo kept fighting, taking another big lead at 20-15. The Mustangs did add five points to the board to tie it up at 20-20 but the Warriors were able to finish the job, winning the set 25-21.

With both teams tied 1-1, the third set started with Western making a comeback and taking a lead before Waterloo tied the set up at 12-12. The Mustangs continued to add points to the board, even taking the lead at technical-time out by a score of 16-13, but after the time out the Warriors fought back to tie the set at 19-19 before clinching the lead and winning 25-20.

The fourth set saw a lot of action from the start with Waterloo determined to take the win. The two teams went point for point with Waterloo fighting to gain a 16-15 lead but the Mustangs came back to take a 22-21 lead before finishing the set up at 25-23.  

The fifth set was to be the decider with the teams tied 2-2. The Mustangs took a quick 8-5 lead but it didn't last for long as the two teams soon found themselves tied at 10-10, showing that the Warriors weren't going to make this easy for the Mustangs.  However the Western team persevered, using their offensive skills to finish the set 15-13 and take the match 3-2.  

Luke Sim was a standout for the Western side, earning a team-high 12 kills on the night, while Justin Scapinello led the defense with 10 digs. 

On Waterloo's side, Zach Doherty and Aleks Poldma led the Warriors with 13 kills apiece while Erich Woolley was stellar on defense, making a match-leading 22 digs. 

The purple and white continue their journey to the finals taking on Guelph University on Saturday, February 8 at 8:00 p.m.