No. 12 TMU loses five-set thriller to No. 9 OUAZ

No. 12 TMU Men's Volleyball suffered its first loss of the season against an NAIA opponent, losing a five-set thriller to No. 9 Ottawa University Arizona (25-19, 19-25, 27-25, 19-25, 15-13) on Saturday afternoon inside The MacArthur Center.
 
"Our guys really fought hard today and left everything out on the floor," Master's Head Coach Jared Goldberg said. "We actually outscored OUAZ for the match but ended up losing a couple of close sets. I know our team is already looking forward to the rematch in Arizona at the end of the year."
 
After dropping a mostly competitive opening set, the Mustangs stormed back to win the second set by the same margin.
 
Facing two set points in the third set trailing 22-24, a Will Avera kill, Wyatt Bates service ace and Ben Herb kill helped Master's score three-straight points to earn a set point of its own. However, an ensuing 3-0 Spirit run gave the visitors a two-set-to-one lead.
 
TMU then dominated the fourth set, leading by as many as 11 points at 21-10 and 22-11, but the Spirit outscored the Mustangs 8-3 the rest of the stanza to gain some valuable momentum heading into the deciding fifth set.
 
After Brett Norkus and Diego Perez combined for a block to open the fifth, OUAZ scored the next four points to gain control of the set.
 
The visitors stretched their lead to as many as five at 11-6 and appeared to be in cruise control up 13-9, only for four-straight Mustang points on Ethan Egger's serving to tie the set at 13 apiece. But OUAZ scored the next two to take both the set and the match.
 
Perez led the Mustangs with 16 kills and eight digs, with Avera (12 kills) and Norkus (11 kills) also reaching double-digits in the category.
 
Avera posted a team-leading six blocks, while Johnny Buchanan tallied a season-high 46 assists.
 
Master's (8-4 overall, 1-1 GSAC) will hit the road for the first time in Golden State Athletic Conference play next week when TMU travels to take on No. 3 Vanguard University in Costa Mesa on Friday before playing against (RV) Hope International University on Saturday.