The Lancer women's volleyball team closed out the 2015 portion of their schedule with a 3-1 (25-22, 16-25, 17-25, 23-25) to the Western Mustangs on Saturday night at the St. Denis Centre.
 
With the loss, the Lancers drop to 5-4 on the year and sit in third place in the OUA west division while the Mustangs improve to 7-2 and sit in second place in the west.
 
The Lancers took off straight out of the gate, picking up an early lead and holding on tightly. Without relying on a single player at the net, Windsor was able to mobilize a number of attackers who found open floor in the Mustang end.
 
Returning to the floor from the technical timeout at 16-12, both teams struggled to hold onto momentum and take control of the remainder of the set. Windsor held off any long point runs to keep the Mustangs at bay for the remainder of the set.
 
The second set saw another quick lead that would remain in effect for the entire set. This time, however, it was Western who would come out on top.
 
Battling out of the initial exchange of points, Western capitalized on the unforced errors of the Lancers and took the set 25-16.
 
The Mustangs again had a quick start in the third, with another series of unforced errors preventing the Lancers from gaining any momentum. Western went on a four-point run just before the technical that the Lancers were unable to come back from, leading to a 25-17 Mustang win.
 
The fourth set arguably marked the greatest battle of the match, with the Windsor making every effort to push the match into a fifth set.
 
Western's early one-point lead would carry them until the nine-point mark, when kills from Shannon Dean and Jade Ziebarth would officially overtake the Mustang score. Again tied at 11-11, a pair of Mustang hitters made a number of kills for the visitors giving them the lead heading into the technical.
 
A five-point run that featured a variety of Lancer attackers not only halted the Mustang point advance and tied the set at 22. However, a Lancer attack error gave the Mustangs the ball back and a kill and solo block secured the win for the visiting Mustangs.
 
The Lancers return to action on Friday January 15th when they host the Waterloo Warriors at 6:00pm at the St. Denis Centre.