The Brock men's volleyball team punched their ticket to the playoffs for the first time since the program was reinstated in 2016. 

The Badgers defeated the Western Mustangs 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-20) to secure their first post-season berth. It's also the first time since 2016 that the men's team has captured seven wins.

"Overall this was a clean, solid win," said head coach Matt Ragogna. "We're happy."

Brock finished fourth in the OUA West with a record of 7-10.

The Badgers came into the match trailing the Mustangs in the OUA West standings by one win for the final playoff spot.

"We followed the game plan to a T and we put down some of their major attackers through the middle and on the pins," said Ragogna. "We served tough, but we've been doing what we've been doing all year and it paid off for us in this game."

Peter Schnabel hit for 10 kills, zero errors on 14 swings for a kill percentage of .714 while Mark Naqvi put on an all-star performance for the Badgers with timely kills (five), serving, attacking and blocking (four). 

"Those two were ridiculously good tonight," said Ragogna. "Our middles were unstoppable. The contributions from Logan House (12 kills), Saulius Lianga (six) and Dean Globocki (five) were all efficient from the pins. Ethan Kalef was all over the court while Marcelo Muniz Correa had a really clean game."

Austin Janzen also stepped in with a couple of big plays while contributing for a handful of positive side outs for Brock.

The Badgers will play the Toronto Varsity Blues (16-1) in the quarter-finals Saturday, Feb. 29 at 3 p.m. Watch on oua.tv

"We're going to be the underdogs, but we're going to embrace it and fight hard," said Ragogna. "We're going to be getting right back to work on the court starting on Monday."