TMU Men's Volleyball unable to maintain fast start in season-opening loss to HIU

The Master's University men's volleyball team started strong but could not maintain its energy in its 2021 season opener, as TMU fell to Hope International in four sets (25-20, 23-25, 21-25, 18-25) on Friday night inside The MacArthur Center.
 
"The guys came out really excited and fired up for their first match in 11 months," Master's head coach Jared Goldberg said. "You could tell by the way they were playing, but the energy we had from the start just wasn't sustainable. We have to figure out a way to be a little more consistent throughout the whole match."
 
With the first set tied 15-15, the Mustangs went on a 6-0 run to take a commanding late-set lead. After taking the first set by five, TMU looked to go up two-sets-to-none, leading by as many as four in the second. Then with Master's ahead 22-20, Hope International scored five of the last six points to take the set and even the overall score.
 
"At the end of the second set, we had a chance to pull away one or two points there but just couldn't do it," Goldberg said. "Then the third set we kind of just let that go as well."
 
The third set followed a similar plot, as the Royals won eight of the final 11 points to win the set by four and go ahead 2-1 in the match.
 
"We were tied halfway through the third set and they broke away just a little bit," Goldberg said. "That was a big flip in momentum, as they went up 2-1. It was really tough to come back from that."
 
On the backs of winning two-straight sets, the visitors completed the trifecta by winning the fourth in convincing fashion, 25-18.
 
What hurt the Mustangs the most was its service game, as TMU did not serve an ace while committing 22 service errors.
 
"We had errors that were compounding on each other," Goldberg said. "It took or three points to get out of a rotation, so that was a struggle towards the end there.
 
"We need to put more pressure on teams at the service line without making too many errors. We were a little high on the errors tonight, which hurt us a little bit."
 
Regardless, Goldberg was proud of the way his team competed.
 
"Tonight I thought we passed pretty well," Goldberg said. "I was proud of how the guys really fought throughout most of the match. They were pretty excited to get back out on the court."
 
Brandon Botdorf set a career-high with 22 kills on an impressive .459 attack %. Wyatt Bates added 14 kills (.407 att. %), while Ben Herb added 12 (.207 att. %).
 
"I thought Ben did great," Goldberg said of Herb. "They didn't expect us to have an opposite who can put the ball away. Ben came in and did a great job. Both of our outsides, Wyatt and Brandon, also put up pretty good numbers as well.
 
"They started camping on Wyatt and Brandon a little more as the match went on and that's the time when Ben stood out and helped balance the offense across the board."
 
Ezra Moore led all players with 48 assists. Herb led TMU with eight digs, while Oscar Talavera-Castanoli recorded seven.
 
Master's (0-1) returns to the court on Monday when the Mustangs travel to Costa Mesa to take on Vanguard (3-0).
 
"Vanguard is a very tough serving team," Goldberg said. "Tomorrow we're going to get back to work and start to prepare for a little more pressure from the service line."