TMU Men's Volleyball falls to No. 12 OUAZ

The Master's University men's volleyball team had little time to bask in the glow of an impressive win over Arizona Christian on Friday night.

Less than 24 hours later, the Mustangs hosted the NAIA's No. 11-ranked team with first place in the Golden State Athletic Conference East Division on the line. 

It's a top position that now firmly belongs to OUAZ after the Spirit beat TMU 3-1 to take a two-match lead in the standings. Set scores were 25-21, 25-11, 23-25 and 25-18.

Ben Herb and Brett Norkus led the Mustangs (2-4, 2-2 GSAC) with nine kills and three blocks each, and Ezra Moore had 32 assists, the fourth time this season the sophomore setter has had at least 30. 

Jordan Moses led OUAZ (8-3, 4-0) with 19 kills. It was the fourth straight match Moses has totaled at least 15 in that category. 

However, plenty of OUAZ attacks didn't find the floor Saturday. Goldberg said the Mustangs have spent extensive time fine-tuning their backline defense — hard work that was evident against the Spirit. 

"I thought our guys played really scrappy along the backline today and frustrated a lot of hitters," Goldberg said. "That's the kind of team we want to be."

Goldberg said he saw similarities between Saturday's match and the Feb. 20 contest when the teams met in Arizona, also a 3-1 OUAZ win. In both matches, the Mustangs kept pace early before things began to unravel.  

Saturday, the match turned late in set one. 

With the score tied 18-18,  the Mustangs made three attacking errors in the next four points. It was the opening that OUAZ had been waiting for, and the Spirit weren't content to only take set one. Goldberg felt the opening set's momentum carried over into the following frame when the Spirit went on 4-0 and 6-0 runs to pull away. OUAZ had 13 kills and just three errors in that set.  

"I thought our blocking was a little bit of an issue," Goldberg said. "We weren't really seeing their hitters too well, so we're going to be spending some time working on that."

The Mustangs regrouped in set three. After falling behind 16-12, they used an 8-2 run, highlighted by two Brandon Botdorf kills, to take a 20-18 lead. 

The score was tied three more times after that, but the Spirit used a 3-0 spurt to inch ahead, 23-22. 

The Mustangs didn't flinch. 

After a Spirit service error, Wyatt Bates recorded a kill, and Norkus and Herb — who stand 6-foot-10 and 6-5 respectively — teamed up for a block to send the match to a fourth set. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't the beginning of an epic comeback. The Mustangs never led in set four. 

TMU will travel to face Arizona Christian on March 12 in Glendale. Then TMU will take on OUAZ again on March 13 in Surprise, Arizona. 

Saturday was also the first time since the season opener on Nov. 10 that TMU eclipsed the 100-point mark. In head coach Kelvin Starr's five seasons, the Mustangs are 35-1 at home against non-conference opponents. 

Interested in playing for TMU? Email head coach Jared Goldberg at: jgoldberg@masters.edu.