The Lancer men's volleyball team were defeated by the host Western Mustangs 3-2 (27-25, 21-25, 21-25, 25-22, 13-15) Friday night in London.
 
This was the second time these two teams met in the last six days after the Lancers defeated the Mustangs 3-1 last Saturday. With the loss, the Lancers now fall to 8-7 on the year. 
 
GAME FLOW
In the first set, the Lancers and Mustangs exchanged points throughout the set making it almost impossible to decide who was going to have the edge in this match. If that was not foreshadowing enough of what a great matchup was in store it would be too tough to identify what would have been as both teams went the distance in the first set and the blue and gold would be the ones who sealed the deal off Dami Alalade's ace serve to take the first set 27-25 for the Lancers to go up 1-0 in the match. 
 
In the second set, in a similar set to the first, both teams played very well dictating the pace of the set and not allowing the other to get too far ahead. It seemed like a chess match out there until Western ultimately checkmated the Lancers down the stretch opening up a four-point margin which allowed them to close out the second set with a 25-21 victory to tie up the match at 1-1. 
 
In the third set, the Western Mustangs started to take control of the game on their floor.  They had a firm grip on the lead early forcing the Lancers to have to use their first timeout at 7-2 and also challenged Coach Gravelle to switch up his lineup. A resilient and deeply talented Lancer men's squad allowed for the personnel changes to generate some more offense to trim the Mustang lead to a narrower margin. However, the Mustangs would do a good job of closing out again despite the effort from the Lancers and took the third set by a score of 25-21 to go up 2-1 in the match. 
 
In the fourth set, the typical tug-a-war action returned as much like the women's game neither team wanted to fall to the other. Both teams traded points throughout in an airtight fourth set which ultimately concluded in favour of the Lancers who were able to tie up the match at 2-2 after winning the fourth set 25-22 which forced a fifth and final deciding set. 
 
In the fifth set, in what was the tenth straight set of volleyball action on the floor that night, the crowd was surely not disappointed by the show that was being put on display on the floor. In the auditorium-like gymnasium of Alumni Hall, this match much like the last had a theatre flair to it in which both sides again equally executed their game plans effectively and made this one too close to call. The Mustangs held onto an 8-5 lead before switching sides and never let go of their lead. Despite a solid effort from the Lancers, it was indeed the Mustangs who held on to defeat the Lancers on home court by a score of 15-13 and taking the match 3-2 by the slimmest of margins. It was another tough heartbreaker for the Lancer men who now fall to 1-5 on the season in fifth-set matches however they still hold a points advantage on Western in the standings despite this loss. 
 
Up Next
The Lancers will prepare for their next matchup on Friday February 21st when they take on the Brock Badgers from the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse. Game time is scheduled for 8:00pm or approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the women's match starting at 6:00pm.
 
Fans can get their tickets in advance at www.goLancers.ca/tickets  or catch the action live on OUA.tv.