The York University Lions women's volleyball team lost 3-2 during their second last home game of the regular season against the Western Mustangs on Saturday, Feb 16 at the Tait McKenzie Centre in a game that went right down to the wire.
 
The Mustangs, who are currently ranked third in the OUA West division, took the first set from the Lions by five points. The Lions opened up the first set with three points in a row. As the Lions continued to take the lead and were ahead of Western 13-11, Western's Brittney Sestric served five times in a row and Western took the lead by three with a score of 16-13. Sestric's serving streak was put to a stop by York's Sarah Williams, who received an assist from Chiara Da Silva, and killed the Mustangs' momentum. York and Western battled it out until the end out of the set, however, the Mustangs were able to finish 25-20 against the home team.
 
In the second set, York was able to get their momentum going and they finished ahead of the Mustangs by two points in a 25-23 set win. Da Silva and Celeste Witzell opened the set with a block to give the Lions their first point. This was followed by a series of seven points from Western who took the lead from York momentarily at 7-1. Soon after, York's Olivia Kim was able to have a serving streak of her own as the Lions were able to put down five points in a row, which brought the set to 9-8 for the Mustangs. Western was then able to answer with five more points of their own to bring the set to 15-10. Kim was once again able to serve another six straight, one of them an ace, to bring the Lions ahead 21-19. The set ended with a kill from Williams to give the Lions a 25-23 win and even up the game at 1-1.
 
The third set went all the way to 27 points as the Lions brought their second game set momentum to the third. Western grabbed the first two points of the set, but the Lions were able to put a point on the scoreboard following a service error from Western's Chloe Biel. Williams was then able to serve five times in a row to bring the Lions to a 6-2 lead with the help of teammate Witzell who had two kills. The Lions kept leading throughout most of the set, with Aleksandra Steins able to help the Lions get to their 16-11 lead with three kills. Western's Rachel Grove was able to serve four times in a row to bring the Mustangs to a close scoring range to York. When the Mustangs and the Lions were tied 19-19 Stein's was able to provide the Lions with a kill to give them a 20-19 lead. York's Cadence Currie was subbed in and served two aces and the set ended with another service ace, this time by Witzell. The Lions took the third set to give them a 2-1 game lead over the Mustangs.
 
The Mustangs, however, were able to muster up enough strength to give them the wins for the next two sets. They took the fourth set 25-9 against York. The fourth set saw 15 kills from the Mustangs and five from the Lions. The teams went into a fifth and deciding set knotted at 2-2.  
 
In the fifth set the Mustangs were once again able to answer to the Lions' challenge as they were able to finish two points ahead of the Lions with a 16-14 game set final. The Lions bounced back from a rough fourth set and were playing inspired volleyball as they pushed the game to match point with a 14-11 lead. The Lions were unable to seal the deal though and the Mustangs rattled off five consecutive points to take the 16-14 set win and pick up the 3-2 victory.  
 
Rookie Kim led the Lions with 14 points and 12 kills while contributing 16 digs, while Steins and Williams both had 10 kills as well. Setter Tara Leithead also had the best game of her Lions career, picking up a career-high 28 assists to go along with 4.5 points, three kills and three digs. Western's Kelsey Veltman paced the Mustangs with 20.5 points and 19 kills.
 
The Lions, who are currently ranked fourth in the OUA East division, will be playing the Windsor Lancers for their last home game of the regular season tomorrow at 1pm the Tait McKenzie Centre.