LONDON, Ont. – Looking to establish their dominance over Lakehead after a difficult five set loss earlier in the season, the Mustangs swept the Thunderwolves in straight sets (26-24, 25-13, 25-23) Saturday afternoon at Alumni Hall.

The win improves the Mustang record to 5-11 with no affect on their fourth place standing in the OUA West division. The Thunderwolves remain in last place in the OUA West with a 3-12 record on the season. 

"One thing we talked about for today's game was keeping out focus beginning to end," said head coach Melissa Bartlett.

"We had an excellent start to sets one and two, and showed a lot of maturity in finishing set three when we were down four points after twenty. It was a great team win with great execution against a good team, and it's a good start going forward to the last few matches of the season."

After opening up the first set with an exchange of points, the Mustangs only carried a small lead at 5-2. Thrown by the blocks being put up by Kelsey Veltman and Aja Gyimah, Lakehead used their first time-out of the match at 7-3.

A series of Mustang errors soon helped the Thunderwolves match the score at 11-11. Playing with a newfound confidence, Lakehead stayed tight to Western and forced the Mustangs into a time-out at 15-16.

With the match again tied at 22-22, the teams continued to trade points until a Thunderwolf error and a kill from Gyimah ended the set at 26-24.

With the momentum from the earlier set on their side, the Mustangs pushed Lakehead into a four-point deficit at 6-2.

Staying ahead by eliminating the unforced errors that almost cost them the first set, Western had the Lakehead score doubled at 14-7. At 18-8, the Lakehead deficit seemed impossible to overcome.

Although the Mustang win was briefly stalled, Lakehead couldn't stop Laura Lytwynec from closing out the set at 25-13 with a kill.

Taking an early lead in the third set, the Mustangs had the Thunderwolves down by two at 7-5. However, after returning from their time-out Lakehead began making smart offensive plays and brought the score to 8-8.

Impenetrable blocks and an absence of unforced errors pushed Lakehead into the lead at 12-14.

Despite being down four points at 16-10, the Mustangs rallied to match the Thunderwolf score at 23-23. A block from Gyimah and a Lakehead error closed out the final set 25-23.

"It was a really great game today," said Gyimah. "We all had the same goal and worked together as a team, and it was fantastic to finally end a match in three sets."

Lakehead left side Jen Casey led the match in total points, earning 14 points across the three sets. Meanwhile, rookie Veltman topped the Mustang scoresheet with 11.5 points, while fellow first year Gyimah recorded 10.5.

The Mustangs return to the court on February 1 to face off against the Brock Badgers. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at Alumni Hall. Fans can stream the game online at OUA.tv.