The Warrior men's volleyball team gave the Western Mustangs all they could handle in a tight three set semifinal match up but could not solve the No. 5 team in the country.  The Mustangs move on to face the Queen's Gaels in the OUA final after sweeping the Warriors by scores of 28-26, 25-20 and 25-23.

The Warriors took the early lead in set one, going up 15-12 before Western came from behind to tie the set at the technical. A solo block from setter Sean McKay gave the Mustangs the momentum needed to pull ahead, but the Warriors did not want to be discounted. A battle ensued in which the Mustangs came out ahead 28-26.

Armed with the first set, Western made sure to quickly put up points in the second. Consistent middle hits from Mathew Waite gave the purple and white a 16-12 advantage at the technical timeout. The Mustangs continued their attack and wrapped up set two 25-20.

The third and final set was intense as both teams put up their best defense. Offensively, Western was plagued with serving errors and Waterloo could not get past the Western blocks. Tied at 18, Garrett May, living up to his OUA First-Team All-Star nod, came up big with serves for Western. Waterloo was not able to recover from the deficit and Western won the set 25-23 and match 3-0.

Waite, a 2012 OUA second-team all-star, had 16 points (15 kills, 21 total attacks) for the Mustangs. OUA first-team all-stars Phil James and Mathieu Poulin put up 10 points (7 kills, 2 serve aces, 1 solo block), and nine points (7 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs) respectively.

Cameron Wheelan (Barrie/), named to the OUA second-team led the Warriors with 13 points (13 kills, 4 digs) while James Evans (Rockwood/Warriors) and OUA first-team all-star Fiodar Kazhamiaka (Waterloo/) had five and four kills respectively.  Athlete of the week Scott Thomson (St. Marys/) had another strong game with 27 assists in a losing effort. 

Defensively, Erich Woolley (New Dundee/) who was recently named to the all-rookie team led his team with seven digs.

The win sends the Mustangs to the CIS Championship hosted by Queen's next weekend as the Gaels got past McMaster in the early semifinal game.