LONDON, Ont. – Three tries from Nikki Case led the Western Mustangs women's rugby team to a 31-22 victory over the Brock Badgers on Friday evening on Alumni Field.

"It was an outstanding performance from everyone involved. Everyone who got out there on the pitch gave it everything they had and it was a great effort from Brock to comeback. They gave us a good fight, but ultimately we executed well enough to come away with a victory," said Mustangs head coach John Weller.

With the win, the Mustangs will remain in the elite Shiels Division next season, the top division in the OUA. The Badgers loss will keep them in the Russell division, where they will hope for the chance to move up again next season.

Case, who led the team last game with four tries against Trent, continued her dominance throughout the match today as she walked away with three in Friday's victory over the Badgers.

"Those are the type of games you expect from our senior players," said Weller. "Nikki [Case] and Arielle [Dubissette-Borrice] have been leader all season, it tonight was no exception. University sports are very cyclical; we're losing a lot of key players tonight, but we're looking to develop our young talent to fill in those gaps."

"It's amazing to see all our hard work come together and for me and the other senior players to end our careers off with a big win," said the fourth-year Dubissette-Borrice. "All the girls really turned their play up a notch today, from the seniors to the younger players; it was a team effort tonight."

With implications reaching into next season, Western came out with purpose to begin their match against a competitive Brock team. Third-year Veronica Harrigan opened the scoring for the purple and white just five minutes into the match with a try to give the Mustangs the early advantage.

Case, who had her hands all over the team's previous match against Trent, kept her momentum rolling against the Badgers with two more tries in the half. Brock would punch in two tries of their own, but the Western offence would continue to generate points on the board, as the Mustangs went ended the half with a 24-10 lead.

The offence was much harder to come by in the second half for the purple and white, as the Mustang offence was unable to break through the Badgers line. Brock's offence found it's footing midway through the second half, scoring a pair of tries to close the gap to 24-22. However, Case would come through one again for the Mustangs with a hard-fought try late in the half to extend the Western lead to 31-22 and earn the victory for the purple and white.

"The coaching staff will know exactly what to expect with our returning players next year; these girls want to win and they have some really big playoff wins under their belt now. Hopefully they take these experiences and use going into next season. They have potential to be a really high-calibre team," said Dubissette-Borrice.

"It's always a challenge playing to top teams in Guelph, Queen's, and McMaster. We aspire to be in competition with them next year as one of the top teams in the country so it's really important that we earned this win and will be in competition with them again next year," said Weller.

The win will mark the end of the Mustang season as they can look forward to competing in the elite Shiels Division once again next season.