COSTA MESA — Before the start of Tuesday's NAIA Top 25 matchup, a fan gently waved an emphatically-punctuated sign. It read: "Remember who you are!"
The handwritten message was meant for No. 15 Vanguard University, but it would have been appropriate for The Master's University as the night rattled toward a pressure-packed finish.
The No. 11 Mustangs were in a situation they'd come to know all too well a year ago, scrambling to find their footing in a road match gone wrong.
The way Master's responded in a 3-2 win Tuesday at The Pit — a venue that has been, well, the pits for TMU for the last decade — showed why this team has risen to its highest ranking in five years and established itself as the front-runner in the Golden State Athletic Conference.
The Mustangs won the night's first two sets but couldn't breathe easy until they rallied to win set five, 15-11, behind a monster effort from freshman Chloe Emory.
Emory recorded four kills in set five, three of them in a crucial spurt that spotted TMU a 7-2 lead.
It wasn't over.
Kayla Sims ended a 7-0 Vanguard run with a kill that pushed TMU's lead to 14-10, and a ball-handling error finally lifted TMU to its ninth win in a row — its third at The Pit since 2006.
After a 25-20 loss in set four, "we were just telling each other that we should have all the confidence in the gym right now," said libero McKenna Hafner, who finished with 23 digs. "We were playing well the first two sets, and we should play the same way in the fifth."
Emory keyed the attack. She finished with a team-high 13 kills, while Madi Fay followed with 11. Regan Tate and Jane Cisar each added nine kills, and Sims totaled 29 assists.
Set two was crucial. Master's (19-3, 8-0 GSAC) looked to be cruising, building an all-but-insurmountable 21-9 lead. Then Vanguard (17-4, 5-3) won a few points. And a few more. All said and done, the Lions had gone on a 12-2 run that made the Mustangs more than uncomfortable. It was 23-21, TMU.
The set was shades of 2017 when the Mustangs won once in 11 road matches, taking their lumps in an 11-17 campaign.
This team has found the road a much safer space. The Mustangs improved to 6-0 away from Bross Court after Cisar's kill pushed Master's to its 24th point and Sims sealed set two with an ace.
Through two sets the Mustangs held Vanguard to a .130 hitting percentage, which would have equaled a season low.
Master's was strong at the net and better on the floor. It must have felt to the Lions like there were 12 Mustangs on the court. Hafner and her teammates dug seemingly everything.
And NAIA coaches certainly dug them.
Master's moved up three spots to No. 11 in Tuesday's NAIA Coaches' Poll, its highest ranking since 2013 when it reached No. 6 in the country. Vanguard jumped up six spots to No. 15.
The Mustangs will play home matches Friday, Saturday and next Tuesday before driving to Santa Barbara to face No. 17 Westmont on Oct. 12.
Near the end of Tuesday's match, the same Vanguard fan held another sign, this one with a message applicable to the road that lies before TMU.
"One point at a time, one set at a time, one match at a time."
