While the previous weekend resulted in a split record for the Mustangs with a victory over Guelph (26-24, 24-26, 25-23, 25-17) and a loss to McMaster (22-25, 17-25, 25-21, 19-25), it also put the vast amount of talent Western's roster holds on full display.

The Mustangs undoubtedly played some of their best volleyball of the season in their Saturday night contest against the CIS No. 1 Marauders, becoming only the third team this season to be able to take a set off of the OUA's most dominant force.

Both head coach Jim Sage and starting middle Mike Choja noted that, while they wished they could pull out a win, there was no denying the amount of effort on the floor that night.

Coming out of the weekend, the Mustangs hold a 7-7 record to remain tied in fifth place with Waterloo and York.

Recent matches have seen a late season surge from outside hitters Bryn Ramsay and Zeid Hamadeh, who have been near the top of the scoresheet over the past few weeks. Meanwhile, Choja continues to be a mainstay on the floor as one of the most senior players, as well as the athlete proven capable of shifting momentum for the team.

The final six games are make or break for the Mustangs as playoffs approach and lower ranked teams are looking for a few last wins to secure one of the eight available spots. Only two of those games see a purple and white home court advantage, with York visiting on Saturday before Nipissing travels down for a Sunday matchup.

Western vs York – Saturday February 6 at 2 p.m.– Watch live at OUA.tv 
 
The first team Western faces with playoffs in the near distance is the York Lions, to whom Western dropped a five-set marathon to in their second match of the season (25-18, 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 12-15).
 
Since then, the Lions have struggled to consistently find success. They head into the weekend at 7-9 and sit alongside Western in fifth place in the league. However, they have one weapon in their arsenal that has been proven to trip up the Mustangs.
 
Throughout the season, Western has struggled when faced with strong and persistent blocks from the opposition. With that in mind, York will be looking to capitalize on the talents of 6-10 Arthur Szwarc. The top solo blocker on the Lion roster, he also leads the OUA in assisted blocks, total blocks, and blocks per set.
 
Szwarc also leads the offensive effort with 258.5 points racked up throughout the season to make him one of the league's leading point earners.
 
Hindering York's efforts has been their self-imposed errors, which have come to plague the team. As a unit, York has more attack errors than any other OUA team, and has the third highest number of service errors.
 
Western vs Nipissing – Sunday, February 7 at 3 p.m.– Watch live at OUA.tv 
 
Throughout the pre-season, regular season, and mid-season tournaments, Western has faced off against Nipissing a number of times. While the Mustangs were able to pull out a win in their earlier regular season contest, every match-up has been comparative.
 
With a 6-9 record, the Lakers are often underestimated, though they've been able to pull a set or two out from under a number of teams this season – among them Waterloo and Queen's, who Western fell to in the first half of the season.
 
Junior outside hitter Cameron Branch has been guiding the Lakers through their matches this season by averaging 4.6 points per set. Fellow outside Lyndon Sonego also racks up an impressive 3.5 points per set, but from there the entire team is below the two-point mark.
 
The Mustangs can expect setter Shawn Humphrey to rely on the established attackers, giving the purple and white blockers the chance to better predict from what position the ball will be crossing net.