The York University Lions men's volleyball squad upset the No.7 nationally-ranked Western Mustangs by a score of 3-2 on Saturday (Oct. 24) in their second match of home opening weekend at the Tait McKenzie Centre.
 
The Lions started the match with a burst of energy which was produced by Tyler Covach (Kitchener, Ont.), who smashed multiple spikes on the Mustang defence. However, the Lions began to fall behind and couldn't harness that spark from the earlier stages of the set.
 
Andrew Shotbolt (Markham, Ont.) entered the game and made an immediate impact, beating the Mustangs on multiple spikes cutting into the Mustang lead in the first set, 23-17. But early mistakes by the Lions led to the first set being won by the Mustangs 25-18.
 
The second set was a completely different story for the Lions as they were virtually mistake free and dominated the set. The Lions stormed out of the gates to take a commanding 13-3 lead, which forced two Mustang timeouts. The blocking trio of Logan Mend (Naramata, B.C.), Nicolas Pirnat (Ottawa) and Alexander Duncan-Thibault (Scarborough, Ont.) shut the door on multiple smash attempts by the Mustangs.
 
Western attempted a late comeback cutting the Lion lead to 19-11, but that was denied by Covach, which was followed by the set point being planted into the hardwood by Arthur Szwarc (Toronto) for a 25-18 set win to level the match.
 
In the third set both the Lions and Mustangs exchanged well executed bumps leading to quality rallies. York fell behind early but marched back to take a 4-3 lead, but then Chris Newcombe emerged as he beat the Lions on back-to back-spikes. After York took a timeout, the Lions defence was closing any smash attempt resulting in a tight score at 17-16 for Western.
 
However, down the stretch the Lions made a few mistakes which led to York dropping the set 25-23.
 
The fourth set was controlled early by the Lions as they took a 13-7 lead. The Mustangs made their way back in the match coming within one, but that was as close as they would come as the Lions capitalized on every Western mistake. The Lions managed to extend the match with a 25-21 fourth-set win.
 
The final set was ignited by Pirnat and Covach, who found holes in the Mustangs defence. The Lions continued to serve well in the fifth with aces by Szwarc and Jules Muhawe (Orleans, Ont.), and Covach finished off the match with a big kill for a 15-12 win.
 
Covach finished the match with 17 points on 12 kills, two service aces and three blocks, while Szwarc led all players with 22.5 points on 16 kills, two service aces and 4.5 blocks.
 
Western's leading scorer was Gavin Taylor with 17 points on 14 kills, two service aces and two blocks.
 
The Lions are now 2-0 on the year and one of only two teams in the OUA with a pair of victories to start the season. They will be back on the court on Friday night (Oct. 30) when they travel to Waterloo, Ont., to take on the Warriors at 7pm.