WATERLOO, Ont. – Zeid Hamadeh and Chris Newcombe combined for 29.5 points on Saturday to night to lead the Western Mustangs to their fourth consecutive win with a four set victory over the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday night.
 
Waterloo was led by Braden Cok's 12.5 points in the loss, while Jordan McConkey added 11.5. 
 
With the win, Western will go into tomorrow's matchup against Guelph with a 7-4 record to sit in third in the OUA West. Waterloo's 1-1 weekend brings their record to 6-6 and keeps them just behind Western in fourth.
 
The first set saw Waterloo quickly build up a three-point lead, only for the Mustangs to neutralize the difference and tie the set at 7-7. From that point until the technical timeout the set was a back and forth battle.
 
Hamadeh and Cok faced off as the two most dominating offensive athletes on the court, while Ramsay and Warriors libero Philippe Piche kept rallies going from the backcourt. Digging and blocking helped the Mustangs keep a competitive edge, while the Warriors saw more success on the serve.
 
Western went into the technical with a two-point lead and returned to the floor to quickly outscore the Warriors 5-1. The post-technical surge gave the Mustangs the momentum they needed to secure the 25-21 first set win.
 
Set two saw a Waterloo lineup determined to avoid a repeat of November's three set sweep.
 
Setter Nikola Dimitrijevic ran a more varied offence to fully utilize Cok, Mawdsley, Kevin LeBreux, and Aidan Simone. The Mustangs weren't able to cut off Waterloo at the net, despite stellar blocking earlier in the match, while the Warriors finally got their blocking timing to shut down Western six times.
 
The Warriors also radically improved their hitting percentage to record only two errors throughout the set, while Western struggled to regain momentum.
 
By the end of the set Waterloo had secured a win by a nine-point margin and ensure the match would go to four.
 
Western was back in their usual form for the third set for a 25-21 win.
 
The Mustangs hitting returned to form in the third, churning out their highest hitting percentage of the match to that point. Fewer errors were made in comparison to set two, and the team had no problem maneuvering around the blocks thrown up by the Warriors.
 
Waterloo's blocking was one of the primary reasons for their success in the second set, and their inability to shut down the Western attackers combined with an increase in offensive errors to lead to a Mustangs set win.
 
The purple and white momentum continued to surge into the fourth and final set.
 
Ramsay shouldered the offensive burden throughout the first several points to give the Mustangs a quick start that would carry them all the way to 25 points.
 
Waterloo made a series of substitutions throughout the set as they attempted to ice Western's server or adjust the on-court atmosphere, but also made the same errors that led to their downfall in November's match.
 
Four Warriors made service errors, while attack errors also shot up to record their lowest hitting percentage of the match with at .087 success rate. 
 
It would be Newcombe who would bring the match to an end with a final block, moving the score to 25-23 in favour of the Mustangs.
 
Western will be back on the court tomorrow at 2 p.m. for a rematch against the Gryphons in the Guelph Gryphon Athletics Centre. Fans can catch all the action live on OUA.tv.