LONDON, Ont. – In their final regular season home game, the Mustangs lost a hard fought battle to the Brock Badgers in four sets (25-21, 17-25, 22-25, 22-25) Sunday afternoon at Alumni Hall.

With the loss, the Mustangs hold a 5-12 record while tied for fourth place in OUA West. Brock's record improves to 8-11 as they remain in third place in OUA West.
 
"We knew Brock was on a losing streak, but also that it's their last match of the season and that they had a lot to play for" said head coach Melissa Bartlett. "To give them a lot of credit, I think they played very well today. It was a tough weekend for them; it was their third match on the road so we should have had that advantage. Unfortunately we were the ones that looked tired. We didn't play poorly, there wasn't any big area. It just wasn't there."
 
Kicking off the match was a brief ceremony horouring co-captains Serena Smith and Laura Lytwynec for their respective contributions to the Mustangs throughout their careers.
 
Smith – originally from Caledonia, ON – has been a starting left side attacker for three of her four seasons with Western. In addition to leading the Mustangs in total attack attempts, she is top three on the team for service aces, digs per set, and points per set. Her other accomplishments include being a two time recipient of the Fran Wigston Volleyball Award – given to the hardest working player on a team – while holding the title of CIS Academic All-Canadian.
 
Lytwynec – hailing from London, ON – finished off her career with the Mustangs with two consecutive captaincies in her final years. Along with Smith, Lytwynec is top three on the Mustangs in total attack attempts, as well as total digs, and digs per set.
 
An exchange of points opened up the first set, with Western and Brock still tied at 7-7. Although blocking and error reduction helped the Badgers establish a two-point lead, the Mustangs rallied to quickly erode their deficit and take the lead at 12-10.
 
At 13-10, the Badgers called the first time out of the afternoon. Returning to the court refocused, Brock knocked out three consecutive points to match the purple and white score.
 
Reclaiming control of the set, Brock had re-established their earlier two-point lead at 16-18.
 
Undeterred, Western pulled out a series of strategically placed attacks to reverse the deficit at 22-20. Regaining the serve at 23-21, Western quickly closed out the set at 25-21 following a Badger error.
 
The second set saw a more energetic and more determined Badger lineup from the very first point. Quickly raking up a four-point lead, Brock was pulling out powerful attacks unseen in the earlier set.
 
Maintaining the lead at 6-10, the Badgers capitalized on the strength of their blocks to cut off the typically successful Mustang attacks.  At the technical timeout, Brock had the Mustangs doubled at 7-16.
 
At 10-20, the Mustangs called a time out to reevaluate their game plan. Returning to the court, Western outscored Brock using targeted attacks and the serving power of second year Jamie Leidl.
 
Unfortunately, the deficit was too much for the Mustangs to overcome as Brock took the second set 17-25.
 
The Mustangs refocused their efforts in the third set, eliminating the unforced errors that put them into the substantial deficit earlier in the match. At 5-3, libero Courtney Sestric led the Mustangs by sprinting and diving across the court to pick up every ball.
 
Adjusting to the tighter defense, Brock focused on blocking and adding accuracy instead of power to their attacks to help them surpass the Mustangs at 11-15.
 
Slowly catching up to the NBdgers, Western shaved down the deficit to just two points at 18-20 and forced a Brock timeout at 20-20.
 
Unable to slow down Brock, the Mustangs lost the third set 22-25 following a kill from Badger Renee Helmer.
 
With a small two-point advantage over the Badgers early on in the fourth set at 6-4, the Mustangs were desperate to force the match into a fifth set. Working on unforced error reduction, Western was still holding off the Badger advance at 12-9.
 
A Mustangs timeout was called at 18-16 as Brock began to close in on the purple and white score. Unable to slow the Badger momentum, the fourth set was tied at 22-22.
 
Ending on a Mustang error, Brock took the final set 22-25.
 
The Mustangs are back in action Saturday, February 7 when they travel to Toronto to face off against the York Lions. Game time is set for 2 p.m., with online streaming available at OUA.tv.