WATERLOO, Ont. – Facing off against arguably one of the OUA's most resilient teams, the Mustangs dropped a hard fought three set match (21-25, 23-25, 23-25) to the Waterloo Warriors at PAC Gymnasium on Friday night.
The loss is the Mustangs third in a row and gives the team a 4-4 record. Meanwhile, the Warriors sit at 6-3 after extending their winning streak to five games.
Zeid Hamadeh led the way for the Mustangs, recording 12 points from 11 kills and two assisted blocks.
Gavin Taylor came in just behind with 10.5 points, while
Chris Newcombe recorded 10 throughout the night.
With 11.5 points from seven kills, three aces, and 1.5 blocks, Greg Simone led the Warrior end of the scoresheet.
Starting off on a high note, the Mustangs not only picked up a quick 6-3 lead, but also had already began to make memorable plays.
One of the earliest points came from Hamadeh as he sent out a kill that ricocheted off the arms of Warrior passer and into the stands. Moments later blocking duo Taylor and Newcombe shut down an attempted attack to send the ball shooting back into the Waterloo end of the court.
Without an effective block to slow down the purple and white attack, the Mustangs continued to send out attacks that went unanswered. Hamadeh continued to dominate at the net from the left side, finding holes in almost every block to make the kill.
Slowly adjusting to the pace of the Mustang game, the Warriors chipped away at the point deficit to tie the set at 16-16, and consecutive errors from Western allowed Waterloo to hit the 20-point mark with a two-point cushion.
London native Greg Simone, who spent the previous four years with the Windsor Lancers, brought the Warriors to set point with three consecutive aces before a final kill from Trevor Coathup handed the Mustangs a 21-25 first set loss.
After the tightly contested first set it's no wonder that the second opened up with the teams matching each other point-for-point, with the score even at 7-7.
Pulling ahead, the Mustangs relied heavily on Hamadeh both at the net and the base line while
Doug Austrom was the driving defensive force.
The Warriors retaliated with a three point run to force the Mustangs into a timeout. Returning to the floor Waterloo matched their earlier three points to overcome the deficit and post a modest one-point lead. Unable to get a solid pass off the serve of Jordan McConkey and struggling to combat Coathup's attack, the Mustangs were back in a deficit.
Despite cleaning up their game to better challenge the home-court Warriors, the Mustangs were narrowly edged out in the second set 23-25.
Opening up the third set with a 7-4 lead, the Mustangs were playing with greater efficiency than in the previous sets, but as has become characteristic of the Warriors, they soon closed the point gap to one after strong serving paired and unforced purple and white errors.
Taking back control, the Mustangs focused on accuracy to cut down on the Waterloo advance, before extending their lead to four at the technical.
Following the timeout the Warriors slowly began to close the gap with the Mustangs, eventually tying things up at 20-20. Both sides continued to trade points throughout the remainder of the set before Waterloo claimed the set and the match at 23-25.
Western will return to the court next weekend for matches against Ryerson and Toronto at Alumni Hall. The Mustangs final contests of the first half are set for 8 p.m. and 7 p.m. starts on Friday and Saturday respectively.
