Two hours before The Master's University was set to appear in the NAIA national tournament for the first time in five years, McKenna Hafner positioned herself near the entrance to the team's Sioux City, Iowa, hotel.
Hafner is the Mustangs' defensive captain, and on this occasion she found herself directing a different sort of traffic.
"Into the vans, everybody. Mustangs this way. Here we go," said Hafner, using a large foam finger to wave a teammate through automatic doors.
As it turned out, nothing was automatic about Tuesday's match inside Tyson Events Center, the Mustangs losing 3-1 to Corban University from Oregon and putting themselves in an unenviable, but not impossible, situation in pool play.
Master's, the No. 2 seed in its pool, fell to the three-seeded Warriors by scores of 18-25, 25-22, 25-18 and 25-17. It will play Reinhardt University, the pool's No. 4 seed, on Wednesday and No. 1 seed Dordt College on Thursday, possibly needing two wins to finish in the top two and advance to bracket play.
"We understand the importance of the next two matches," said Hafner, who recorded a match-high 22 digs. "But we're trying not to let this match define our goals and how we come out and play next time."
Kayla Sims led a balanced attack with eight kills and 18 assists on a day the Mustangs won the first set by swinging .375 only to fall off in the final three — hitting .132, .162 and .000.
"I don't know if we just got comfortable or what it was," Hafner said, "but how we were in the first set didn't seem to carry on to the rest of the match."
Chloe Emory contributed seven kills, while four Mustangs finished with six kills each. As Master's met inside its locker room, coach Allan Vince asked each player to grade her preparation, performance and attitude and give herself a rating.
No one shared their grade, but Vince challenged each Mustang to improve. Now, the key will be to press on.
"The route we have to go now, we're capable of it," Sims said. "We came here not only to honor the Lord, but to win some games. I think we're all encouraged despite the loss today. We're keeping our heads up."
Mustang players acknowledged that collectively they didn't follow Vince's scouting report closely enough. Corban's Avari Ridgway and Adriana Aguayo particularly exposed TMU's defense, combining for 26 kills.
"They were picking good spots," Hafner said, "but they weren't spots that were unknown to us."
Neither is this spot unknown to the Mustangs, a team that while winning 18 more matches than it did a year ago has still had to bounce back from a handful of difficult defeats.
Most notably, Master's lost in three to an unranked Menlo team on Oct. 27, but rallied to secure the first Golden State Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles in program history.
Hafner said her team will draw on that experience.
"I don't think we're scared in anyway," she said. "This will motivate us to be better."
