TMU competitive in loss to NCAA Division I Grand Canyon

TMU Men's Volleyball entered its Arizona road trip hoping to prove that it belonged among the top competition in the NAIA.
 
Mission accomplished.
 
After defeating the NAIA's sixth-ranked team Benedictine University Mesa on Thursday for the program's first-ever win over a nationally-ranked opponent, the Mustangs were extremely competitive in a straight-set defeat against No. 6 Grand Canyon University of NCAA Division I on Friday (18-25, 20-25, 23-25).
 
"We played a very competitive game against a good team today in sixth-ranked GCU," Master's Head Coach Jared Goldberg said. "GCU is a physical team and I thought we did a great job matching up against them."
 
Diego Perez once again led Master's with 10 kills, while his three blocks were also a team-high. Johnny Buchanan paced the Mustangs with 28 assists, seven digs and three service aces.
 
But it was the performance of two players off the bench that really caught Goldberg's eyes.
 
"We had a couple guys really step up off the bench today in Ryan Fooks and Brock Gardner," Goldberg said. "Brock had some big-time plays stopping All-American outside hitter Camden Gianni."
 
Fooks recorded three kills and one block assist, while Gardner contributed a couple kills himself.
 
Master's and Grand Canyon went back-and-forth early in the opening set, before a 6-0 Lopes run gave GCU a 14-7 lead to take control of the first set.
 
The home side then took a 14-7 advantage once again in the second set, only for the Mustangs to battle back to within two points on two separate occasions.
 
TMU was even more competitive in the third and ultimately final set, taking a 13-10 lead after a 5-0 Mustang run, which featured two Perez kills and a combined block by Perez and Fooks.
 
GCU responded immediately to regain its lead, 14-13, before Master's came close to forcing a fourth set. With TMU trailing by one at 23-24, the Lopes took advantage of a Mustang error to complete the sweep.
 
However, Master's will take lots of confidence from this match going into next week's slate, which features home matches against No. 10 Georgetown College (Ky.) on Thursday at 6 p.m. and No. 15 UC Merced on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
"We are looking forward to seeing a couple more NAIA teams next weekend with Georgetown and UC Merced, along with a road matchup against NCAA Division III Cal Lutheran," Goldberg said.