LONDON, Ont. – Despite securing her 500th career kill in the OUA, Scarlett Gingera and the rest of the Bold were once again unable to mount a comeback over the No. 10 ranked Western Mustangs on Saturday in a 3-1 (22-25-25-20, 20-25, 19-25) defeat at Alumni Hall.
Western's Rachel Gray set the pace on offense for the home side, blitzing TMU's side of the court for a career-high 19 kills to guarantee the Mustangs an inflated place in the country's national rankings and extend the Bold's search for their debut win of 2025 another week.
Hannah Bellai led the charge for the Bold in the defeat with 11 kills despite finishing the afternoon with a .119 hitting percentage. Fourth-year Kylie Ferguson also became a common obstacle for the Mustangs to deal with on Saturday, roaming the perimeter of the court and collecting a season-high eight kills in the process.
Gingera chipped in ten kills against the Mustangs for the second game in a row and most notably, became the eighth player in program history to reach the 500 kill plateau after knocking down a kill in the third set of Saturday's matinee affair.
Although enduring a loss to the Mustangs less than 24 hours before first serve, the Bold appeared to have cleaned up their differences that left them reeling in on a straight-set defeat to Western on Friday.
Unlike their loss the night prior, the Bold were able to make life difficult for the Mustangs as the home side worked to pull away from a 15-11 lead in the opening set.
TMU were able to force the Mustang's into a series of attacking errors to help knott the set up at 20 apiece, though their inability to contain Gray resulted in Western eventually closing out the set on the heels of her two kills.
The blue and gold were finally able to take their first lead of the match in the early goings of the second set, using a dominant 7-2 run midway through the frame to create a 17-11 cushion over their ranked opponent.
The Mustangs failed to go down easily however, positioning themselves within two points of tying the set on four separate occasions as the Bold limped to a 25-20 win.
Western responded swiftly to dropping just their twelfth set of the season and began utilizing their bench to try and retake their lead in the match. First-year Nyla Tukker drew into the contest late in the second set, but managed to find her stride early in the third, hammering four kills to help mount a 12-10 advantage for her side.
Then, with the score only favouring the Mustangs 15-14, Tukker was able to use consecutive kills to spark a 4-1 run that had alluded the ranked side up until that point and give Western all the momentum they needed to close out the Bold once more.
That impetus only fueled the red-hot hand of Gray in the fourth however, who overwhelmed the Bold with a game-high eight kills to give the visitors little chance at staving off defeat.
Blocking threat Claire Stewart also assisted in helping the Mustangs pull away with five kills of her own in the fourth set, as well as a service ace, to secure match point.
Despite returning home without a win on the weekend, the Bold will look to carry their individual successes-such as Kaiya Krahn's eight-kill performance on Friday and Ferguson's right-side resurgence- into next Friday's home outing against the McMaster Marauders.
First serve from the MAC flies at 6 p.m and is the first of four upcoming home games for the Bold.
