Photo Courtesy: Navaneeth Mohan, 94.9 Radio Western

GOJHL

The London Nationals opened up their first-round playoff series with a 5-2 win over the St. Thomas Stars on Wednesday evening. The Stars led 2-0 after the first period, with goals from Jake Robinson and Brady Elder. The Nats would then score five unsanswered goals over the next two periods, from five different players to secure the 1-0 series lead. Christian Polillo and James Turner both finished with a goal and an assist, while Cal Davis had a pair of helpers as well. Game #2 of the 2nd-versus-7th series will go on Friday evening in St. Thomas with a 7:30pm puck drop.

The Komoka Kings also opened their playoff series with a win of their own over the Chatham Maroons 2-1 on Thursday evening. The game was tied 1-1 in the third period when Jacob Howard scored with under five minutes left in regulation to put the 6th-seeded Kings up 1-0 in the best-of-seven series. Game #2 of the series will go on Saturday evening in Komoka.

The LaSalle Vipers are up 1-0 in their series against Sarnia, picking up a 6-2 road win on Thursday. The Strathroy Rockets took down the top-seeded Leamington Flyers in their initial game of the playoffs 1-0.

Western Mustangs

Hockey

Both Western Mustangs hockey teams find themselves in pivotal playoff series this weekend.

The women’s team has their backs against the wall against the Toronto Varsity Blues after dropping Game #1 of the McCaw Cup semi-finals 3-0 on Wednesday evening. The game was scoreless through two periods of play, until California-native Kiyono Cox got loose on a breakaway and opened the scoring for Toronto early in the third period. Mathilde De Serres would score an insurance marker on the powerplay later in the period, with Taylor Trussler adding an empty netter. Rookie netminder Erica Fryer would stop all 27 shots she faced to give Toronto the Game #1 victory. For Western, it was their first OUA playoff loss since 2017 against Waterloo. That year, they were eliminated in three games in the quarter-finals. To make matters worse, senior blueliner Edie Levesque went down with what looked to be a serious lower body injury in the opening game of the series. Game #2 will be played at Varsity Arena in Toronto on Friday night. The Mustangs won their only game in the old barn during the regular season 5-3. If the Mustangs win and force a Game #3, it will be played back in London on Saturday at 2:30pm. The Western Mustangs are defending U Sports silver-medallists.

The men’s team opened up their OUA West final series against the Guelph Gryphons on Thursday night, winning an exciting game 4-3 at Thompson Arena. A scoreless first period would lead into a six-goal second period. Justin Lemke got the scoring started for Guelph midway through the second frame, which started a shot-for-shot battle in the ensuing ten minutes. Mitchell Fitzmorris would tie it for Western, with Andres Kopstals restoring Guelph’s one-goal lead less than a minute later. Less than 60 seconds after Guelph got the lead back, Cordell James tied the game up yet again 2-2. Mikkel Aagaard--former captain of Denmark’s World Junior team--put Guelph back up again, with Mitchell Brooks following suit with another late period goal to knot it up at 3-3. Kyle Petit would give Western their first and only lead of the game late in the third period to put the Mustangs one win away from a National Championship berth. Game #2 of the series will be played in Guelph on Saturday at 7:30pm. If the Gryphons win that game, then the deciding contest will be played back at Western on Sunday evening at 7pm. The winner of the series will be in the Queen’s Cup championship game, and have a berth in the National Championship tournament held in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Volleyball

The Western Mustangs volleyball teams will be hosting their respective OUA quarter-final games on Saturday at Alumni Hall.

The women will host the Queen’s Gaels for the third year in a row. Western has won all three of those matches, as the Mustangs have won four straight OUA Bronze medals. The Gaels finished the OUA regular season as the third seed in the East with an identical 13-6 record to the Mustangs’. Their lone matchup of the regular season saw the Mustangs pull out a five-set victory in Kingston in late October. The Gaels led the OUA in assists during their regular season, with Sierra Hardy gaining most of them as their starting setter. Hardy will be looking to set up fifth-year outside hitter Caroline Livingston, who led the Gaels with 247 kills during the regular season--nearly 100 more than her next closest teammate. The Mustangs are hosting this matchup because they finished the regular season as the second seed in the West. They concluded the regular season with eight straight victories, including an upset over the Waterloo Warriors who lost just twice all season. The Mustangs are led by Kelsey Veltman, who, in her senior year had the second-most kills (261) and the second best hitting percentage at .344 out of the middle of the court for Western. Jessica Lam, the setter for Western, was ranked sixth in the OUA with 534 assists in her freshman season. The OUA quarter-final match will be played at 2:30pm on Saturday afternoon from Alumni Hall.

The men’s team will be hosting the Toronto Varsity Blues in their quarter-final match, looking to get into the OUA Final Four for the first time since 2014. The Varsity Blues finished in third place in the East division with a 12-6 record. They finished the regular season winning four of their last five matches. In the regular season, the Mustangs took out Toronto in four sets in their only matchup (25-23, 23-25, 25,21, 25-22). The Varsity Blues have one of the strongest defences in the OUA, leading the league 711 digs in the regular season. Saturday’s match will be a battle of the setters, with Western’s Matt Hooker leading the OUA averaging over 10 assists per set while Toronto’s Jordan Figueira had 9.94 assists per game. The Mustangs’ Jackson Bere also had the top hitting percentage in the regular season at .421. The OUA men’s quarter-final will be played at 5pm from Alumni Hall.