LONDON, Ont. –After four competitive sets (25-21, 21-25, 25-19, 25-14), Western picked up their first win in the season-opener against the Lancers at Alumni Hall.
 
The Mustangs were looking to make a statement in their first regular season match after a series of losses led to an OUA bronze medal last season.
 
"We definitely knew going in that a lot of teams wanted to beat us," said outside hitter Taylor Beedie. "We've just been focusing on starting this season, not continuing last season. This is a new start for us. We went in super prepared, used the game plan, and it worked out really well."
 
Second year, Aja Gyimah topped both sides of the scoresheet with 18 points from 18 kills, two aces, and two assisted blocks. Kelsey Veltman followed closely behind with 15 points.
 
The first set began with setter Katherine Tsiofas hammering a series of aces into the Windsor court, giving the Mustangs a quick leg up.
 
The purple and white point lead was reduced after a five point run by the Lancers, tightening the score to 8-7.
 
While Windsor was often able to catch the Mustang score, they were unable to eclipse it. The entire set saw only a two-point difference in favour of Western at the technical timeout.
 
Returning to the floor, the Mustangs continued to fend off Lancer advances, closing out the set at 25-21.
 
The second set saw the Lancers sticking tight to the purple and white score, with the teams often trading points one-for-one. It wasn't until the score was tied at 20-20 that Windsor was able to put up and maintain a steady lead.
 
A series of kills put the Lancers over the top to bring the second set to 21-25.
 
Returning to the floor for the third set, the Lancers used their momentum to rapidly establish a 5 point lead over Western. The Mustangs responded by outscoring their opponents 6-1 to tie the set at 6-6.
 
Falling behind again, the Mustangs managed to bring the score back up at 12-12.
 
Point by point, the purple and white inched higher on the scoreboard. With a six-point lead at 24-17, the Mustangs were briefly stalled by the advancing Windsor Lancers. However, Western held onto their lead and ended the third set with a 25-19 victory.
 
The fourth set began with an exchange of points and Western began to distance themselves from Windsor. With minimal errors coming from the purple and white, the Lancers had to rally to scrape each point off the defending bronze medalists.
 
With a score of 14-7, Western dominated at the net, putting up an additional six blocks in the final set of the match – with Gyimah and Veltman causing the most trouble for the Lancers.
 
At the final whistle, Western was up 25-14 to capture the fourth set, and the match.
 
"We talked a lot about how every team is going to be gunning for us, and it puts a lot of pressure on the team – you have to bring your a-game all the time," notes head coach Melissa Bartlett.
 
"I thought Windsor played quite well, they were very aggressive and that's how they were able to put us in trouble in set two. You could see the pressure, we played very emotionally high and low in sets one and two, and really figured it out  in sets three and four – how to be in control."
 
The Mustangs continue their campaign for another medal on October 30. The team will head to Guelph to take on the Gryphons at the W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre. The game is scheduled to start at 6pm, with live streaming available at OUA.tv.