Guelph, Ont. – Despite playing what was undoubtedly one of their best matches of the season, the Western Mustangs were narrowly defeated by the top-seeded Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday night in the OUA Semi-Finals. The five set loss (7-25, 25-15, 19-25, 25-23, 7-15) at Guelph's W. F. Mitchell Athletic Centre sends Western to the bronze medal match, while Toronto will fight for gold.
 
The Varsity Blues may have dropped the first point of the match, but they more than made up for it by immediately countering with an eight-point run. With kills coming from all over the Toronto court, Western came in for the first time-out of the match trailing at 1-8.
 
The Mustangs returned to the court to take two quick points off of the Blues but struggled to keep control of play. Regaining the serve, Toronto went on another point run that brought the score to 3-16.
 
Racking up an 18-point difference, Toronto closed out the set with a final kill at 7-25.
 
Working hard to prevent a repeat of the earlier set, the Mustangs stayed competitive with the Blues early in the second set. Taking care to send attacks into the open court, the first purple and white lead of the night was at 3-2.
 
Finding weaknesses in the blue and white blocks, the Mustangs began to surge ahead and completely changed the tone of the match. With the Varsity Blues doubled at 10-5 and Mustang libero Courtney Sestric picking up almost every attack sent out, Toronto was forced into their first timeout of the night.
 
Still leading at 14-7, the Mustangs seemed to have completely shifted out of their patterns from the first set. No longer intimidated by the power of Toronto's attacks the Mustangs confronted each ball head on to land a series of blocks and pick up multiple digs.
 
At 23-14, Toronto called a timeout in a last attempt to slow down the Mustang momentum. However, it was the Varsity Blues who handed Western the second set 25-15 as the final purple and white point came from a serving error.
 
An exchange of points opened up the third set, with the score tied at 7-7.
 
Perking up since the end of the second set, the Blues pushed ahead and forced the Mustangs into a three-point deficit at 9-12. Toronto – playing like their first set selves – adjusted their blocks and began reacting to those thrown up by Western.
 
The Varsity Blues were still leading at 17-22, capitalizing on Charlotte Sider's wicked arm and the strong blocking of Denise Wooding. The set ended minutes later as a Toronto victory at 19-25.
 
Despite taking an early lead in the fourth set at 2-5, Toronto couldn't keep the Mustangs from slowly closing the gap. Matching the Varsity Blues at 8-8 and again at 10-10, both teams relied on blocking to try and edge out the other.
 
At the technical timeout, Toronto held on to a small one-point lead.
 
Coming back to the court, the Blues struggled to extend their lead to two points at 17-19, and as Toronto and the Mustangs traded points, the blue and white lead was shaved down to one point.
 
Refusing to stay down, the Mustangs caught up to the Varsity Blues at 23 points and forced a blue and white timeout.
 
However, the interruption wasn't enough to slow down Western. Proving their determination, the Mustangs took the fourth set 25-23 after Katherine Tsiofas and Candice Scott sent out consecutive kills. 
 
Continuing the trend of taking a fast lead, Toronto was up 0-3 in the fifth and final set. Pushing their lead to five points at 3-8, the blue and white momentum was roaring.
 
Unfortunately, a Mustang timeout at 6-11 wasn't enough to stop the Varsity Blues as they continued to send out powerful attacks and make few errors. Closing out the match, Toronto took the final set 7-15.
 
Rookie Aja Gyimah ruled over the scoresheet, recording a game high 18 points from 16 kills, one service ace, and two assisted blocks. Charlotte Sider, the OUA East Player of the Year, came in behind Gyimah with 17.5 points while OUA West Player of the Year Kelsey Veltman pitched in 12.
 
The Mustangs will return to the court in Guelph for tomorrow's bronze medal match. Set to face off against the Gryphons in red and gold territory, Western will aim to end the weekend on a high note and bring home some hardware. The match is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., with live streaming available at OUA.tv.