Western moves on to OUA Final Four with straight sets win over Queen's

LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs secured their third straight appearance at the OUA Final Four Tournament on Saturday evening, topping the Queen's Gaels in three quick sets (25-15, 25-15, 25-20) at Alumni Hall.
 
The win means that the Mustangs will continue their campaign for OUA gold next weekend, while Queen's year comes to an end.
 
"Third year in a row, and it never gets old," said said head coach Melissa Bartlett about the opportunity to fight for a medal. "It's such a great experience and such a premiere event – to have the top four teams there to battle it out. I know the team is so excited, and they've worked so hard to get where they are."
 
"We executed our game plan, pretty much start to finish," said Bartlett about the game. "That's been the focus all week. Our goal was to have our middles be our big scorers because we knew it would be a good matchup for us. And that was the truth, Kelsey Veltman led and Candice Scott was right up there."
 
Veltman was the highest scoring athlete of the game, finishing with 18.5 points after three sets. Aja Gyimah followed with 10.5, while Scott added 10. Defensively, setter Kat Tsiofas led the team with seven digs, while Gyimah and rookie Melissa Langegger were responsible for five apiece.
 
Eight points from Victoria Wensley led the Gaels, with Caroline Livingston followed closely behind with seven.
 
"Our energy was so good through the whole game," said Veltman. "We kept it pretty consistent, which is something we really wanted to work on and we practice it a lot."
 
Gyimah and Kaleigh Matheson started off the first set as the predominant powers at the net, also serving as the favourite targets for Tsiofas. Scott was the other dominating athlete at the net early on, as she twice shutdown the impending attack from the Gaels.
 
Isabel Korchinski was solid on defence for the Gaels, recording five digs throughout the set, but their offence struggled to generate points. Livingston landed only two kills in set one, while Wensley led with three.
 
Veltman was quiet for much of the first set, not ramping up until her second kill of the night sent Western into the technical with a six-point lead. Once she returned to the floor the 6-2 middle became one of the most dominating athletes on the court.
 
The Gaels continued to struggle offensively, with Livingston, the team's regular season leading scorer, recording a negative hitting percentage with twice as many errors than kills. Despite an increased defensive effort, Queen's was unable to slow the flow of points from Western to lose the opening set by ten points.
 
Set two also saw the Mustangs walk off the court with a 25-15 victory after Veltman racked up ten points. The second set performance from the Brampton native was unmatched elsewhere on the floor as she added nine kills without a single error, while also adding a solo block.
 
The combined firepower of the purple and white roster and a tight defensive game continued to give the Gaels trouble, with Queen's earning more points from Mustang errors than they were able to earn. Only five of the 15 points they picked up in the second frame were actually won, with the remaining ten being awarded after Western committed errors.
 
Serving was a particular sticking point for the Mustangs, who sent five balls into the net or out or out of bounds in the second set.
 
The third and final set again saw Western jump ahead early on, with Veltman still leading the charge and with the team's blocking matching the standard established in the first frame.
 
In the first and third sets the Mustangs managed to shut down Queen's offence on five and four occasions respectively to effectively neutralize the Gaels usual powerhouses.
 
Western held a comfortable eight-point lead at 21-13, until a sudden resurgence from the Gaels saw them string together six straight points. The run was served by Danielle Corrigan, and saw five of the six points come from mistakes made on the purple and white half of the court.
 
"It was definitely a loss of focus, and I think it was just excitement," said Bartlett. "We were at the end of the game and making the Final Four is such an accomplishment. I think we were looking ahead at next weekend already and getting excited for that. I wasn't surprised that it happened, Queen's had that last push too. They were basically fighting for their lives and I was glad that we were able to pull it out. You never know in a situation like that."
 
However, the brewing comeback would never fully come together as a kill from Gyimah brought the match to an end to give Western a 25-20 win.
 
The Mustangs will be back in action on Friday, March 10, when they head to Toronto for the first round of the OUA Final Four Tournament. Western will face-off against the Varsity Blues at 6 p.m., with the winner progressing to the gold medal final on Saturday.

Source: Western Mustangs