The Windsor Lancer women's volleyball team defeated the Western Mustangs twice this weekend to earn their first pair of home victories at the Toldo Lancer Centre of the 2023-24 campaign. 
 
On Friday night the Lancers took down their 401 rivals with a 3-1 victory (25-19, 25-21, 15-25, 27-25) over the Mustangs before following up in similar fashion with another 3-1 win (25-20, 19-25, 25-17, and 25-23) on Saturday evening. 
 
With the wins, Windsor improved to 4-12 on the season while Western fell to 7-8 on the year.
 
FRIDAY STATS
Yaila Sealy earned 13 kills on the night while also notably appearing in the defensive stat line category with 9 digs in the win. 
 
Raiya Millin had 10 kills of her own while Aliah Admans also contributed with 9 kills towards the winning effort over Western on Friday night. 
 
Admans also put up good defensive numbers with a double digit dig performance of 11 while her teammate and Lancer libero, Anna Scarfe, led the blue and gold's defensive cause with an outstanding 16 digs that were passed up to her setter Nicole Woelk. 
 
Woelk racked up 35 assists in the contest to help propel her team to their first win in Windsor of 2024.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY
In the opening set, the Lancers found themselves engaged in a battle with the Mustangs trading points back and forth while not being able to find space to create a large margin in the early stages of the first set.
 
With persistence, the Lancers pushed on and eventually found themselves ahead by a spread as high of 6 points during the midway mark of set one approaching the later portion of the set. 
 
The Mustangs resisted by keeping things close but ultimately it was the Lancers who managed to close out and take care of business down the stretch with a 25-19 win to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Western opened the scoring in the second set and found themselves in front of Windsor on few occasions before the blue and gold began to bounce back.  The Lancers reversed the deficit from the Mustangs to a lead over theme approaching the double-digit territory of the set. 
 
A series of repeated deadlocks on the scoreboard ensued where both teams met eventually 21-21.  The purple and white tested the blue and gold but after a closely contested second set the Lancers received a pair of charity points from the Mustangs' attack errors and in between that a clutch service ace from Olivia Foley to take the second set 25-21 and go up 2-0 on Western.
 
The third set heavily favoured the Western Mustangs who did a great job of capitalizing on the Lancers errors throughout the set.  Strong play from Western's standout trio of key performers in Devin Gerth, Lael Harrison, and Claire Stewart helped to extend the match to a fourth set with a convincing 25-15 third set win over Windsor to make it a 2-1 Lancer match lead.
 
Despite Western picking up where they left off in the third set early in the fourth with a few one-point leads, the Lancers elevated their play to get back on track from where they were earlier in the match to flip the script on the Mustangs and overturn their early lead towards the midway part of the set.
 
Windsor held the lead on Western for a majority of the set until the Mustangs picked up steam again towards the later duration of the set when they were able to come back and tie the set at 19-19. 
 
The Lancers then found themselves in another tough battle with the Mustangs at 21-21 which later became a 24-22 Western set point advantage one point shy of triggering a potential fifth set. 
 
Enamoured with a sense of urgency and resiliency to stave off the possibility of a fifth set, the Lancers managed to rise to the occasion and tie the game up at 24-24 after a missed Western serve and strong kill from Sealy to make it a win-by-two scenario from there on out. 

The set was then stalemated at 25-25 and the Lancers managed to seal the deal with a strong kill from Millin to make it 26-25 followed by an attack error from Western to end the game on top 27-25 and a 3-1 final to earn their first home win of the season at the TLC over the Mustangs in thrilling fashion.
 
SATURDAY STATS
Yaila Sealy led the Lancers offensively again for a second straight match with 14 kills in Windsor's second victory over Western on the weekend.
 
Aliah Admans had 12 kills against the Mustangs on Saturday while Raiya Millin matched that same number with 12 kills of her own that landed on the Western side of the court.
 
Jordyn Brearly had 5 blocks for a season high on the campaign for her efforts of guarding the Lancers side of the net.  Meanwhile defensively Anna Scarfe also achieved a season high with a whopping 17 dig performance to follow up and better a solid 16-dig performance from the night before.
 
Nicole Woelk had 41 assists in helping to set up her team to a second victory on the weekend against the Mustangs while at home. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY
On Saturday, the Lancers managed to carry forward some of the momentum from the night before with a competitive start to the opening set. 
 
The Mustangs kept on the coattails of the Lancers throughout before Windsor was able to find a way to break open a larger lead on scoreboard which grew as high as a 20-11 score. 
 
Windsor rounded out the first set on top with an impressive close score topping Western 25-20 to go up 1-0 in the match.
In the second set, Western went on an early run to open the scoring with a 4-0 lead before Windsor began to try and catch up. 
 
Ultimately, the Mustangs maintained momentum throughout the set to not allow the Lancers to go up 2-0 and instead split the match at a 1-1 deadlock with a 25-19 second set win over the Lancers. 
 
The blue and gold flipped the script in the third set mimicking what Western achieved in the second set with a 4-0 lead before Western started to pick up some points. 
 
The middle of set was quite even until the Lancers broke open the scoring going on a run and being able to take the torch into the fourth set with a 25-17 third set win and 2-1 match advantage.
 
The fourth set was evenly matched throughout with each side wanting the win.  The Lancers found themselves ahead by a bundle of points before the Mustangs began to gallop back with some accumulated points of their own to make it interesting going into the late stages of the set. 
 
A tie at 23 made it another win-by-two set scenario for both squads as the Lancers were able to achieve the feat by making it to 25 first with a service error from Western followed by a match winning service ace from Millin to win the match 3-1 and improve to 4-12 on the season.
 
UP NEXT
The Lancers will now shift their focus to next weekend's homestand where they will welcome the York Lions to the Toldo Lancer Centre for the first time for a pair of matches beginning on Friday February 9th at 6:00pm and followed up on Saturday February 10th at 6:00pm.
 
Tickets are available for purchase in advance here at goLancers.ca/tickets or can be bought upon entry on gameday at the TLC box office. The action will also be livestreamed on oua.tv on Friday and Saturday evening for volleyball fans to tune into remotely.
 
Also be sure to follow the official Windsor Lancers X account for live scores and updates throughout the Lancers upcoming matches.