NORTH BAY, Ont. – Celebrating the end of the 2014-15 regular season with a win, Western defeated Nipissing in three sets (25-21, 25-17, 25-18) on Saturday afternoon at the Robert J Surtees Student Athletics Center.
The win secures sixth place in the OUA for the Mustangs, who finish the regular season with an 11-9 record. The match brings Nipissing's season to an end as they sit in ninth place with a 5-15 record and will not qualify for playoffs.
In addition to securing their OUA position, the match also marked milestones for some of the Mustangs.
Mike Choja recorded his 70th block of the 2014-15 season, while fellow veteran
Doug Austrom landed his 125th point of the season.
The first set opened up with a bit of trouble for the Mustangs, with the Lakers coming out strong from the start. But a kill from
Justin Scapinello would tie the set at 10-10.
Not letting their visitors get too far ahead, the Lakers exchanged points with the Mustangs before taking the lead at 14-16.
Returning from the technical timeout, the Mustangs picked up their game and rallied to match the Lakers. Using stronger attacks, Western pulled ahead to end the set at 25-21.
Unwilling to take a chance on the second set, the Mustangs came out swinging to put themselves ahead. When the technical timeout was called, Western had established a four-point lead over the Lakers.
Returning to the court, the purple and white attack continued to baffle the Lakers as the point gap slowly expanded. Tight defence kept Nipissing at bay, as the Mustangs quickly closed out the set at 25-17.
The third set was characterized by an onslaught of Mustang attacks that Nipissing was unable to combat, as well as a stark reduction in attack errors. With only one attack error from Western's half of the court, Nipissing was unable to capture unearned points and struggled with unforced errors themselves.
When the technical timeout rolled around, the Lakers were buried deep in a point deficit and a comeback seemed unlikely. As expected, Nipissing was unable to slow down the purple and white momentum, with the final set ending as a win for the Mustangs at 25-18.
Vetran Scapinello finished his last regular season game with the Mustangs as the point leader for the match. Earning 14 points, Scapinello recorded 12 kills and two service aces.
Gavin Taylor followed behind with 13 points, while Cameron Branch topped Nipissing's scoresheet with 13 points as well.
In addition to leading the purple and white offence, Taylor and Scapinello also led the team from the backcourt by recording five digs each.
The Mustangs return to the court on Saturday, February 14 for the first round of playoffs. Holding down sixth place, they will travel to face off against the OUA third place team. The opponent of the Mustangs depends upon results from the final day of regular season play.
