Miller sets serve record in Lady Mustangs' win

Box Score Timberlie Miller set a new single-season service aces record as The Master's defeated the Arizona Christian Firestorm in five sets Friday night at The MacArthur Center.

Miller's three aces in the match gives her 58 for the season to pass Kayla Sims who had 57 back in 2016.

"It's definitely a pretty cool record because serving is sometimes overlooked," Miller said. "But definitely all glory to God for the opportunity to be able to serve and be able to play this game at The Master's against these good teams. The hype after an ace from the team has been pretty awesome."

"Timberlie has an unorthodox serve that floats and has pace on it," said Head Coach Annett Davis. "It doesn't surprise me that she broke the record. She has a tricky serve."

For the sixth time this season, the Lady Mustangs (14-10, 4-6 GSAC) took it to five sets, and for the sixth time this season the team won the match. It was the fifth time TMU had to come from behind to win in five sets.

The Master's easily took the first set 25-9 and seemed like they were on cruise control to give the Firestorm their 11th consecutive loss in conference going back to last season. But ACU came out gunning in the second set, easily winning it 25-12 and then coming from behind to win the third set 25-22 to take a 2-1 lead.

In the fourth set, The Master's jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and never relinquished, leading by as much as six before finishing with a 25-21 set win to force a decisive fifth set. After a kill by Ruby Duncan evened the score at 2-2, the Lady Mustangs scored the next four in a row to take a commanding lead they would not give up, winning the set 15-9 to take the match.

"Thankful for the win tonight," Coach Davis said. "The nice thing about our team is our versatility. We are blessed to have a team where a middle can play opposite or an outside can play any position we need her to play at a moments notice."

TMU hit .156 in the match compared to ACU's .113, and led in kills (47-46), aces (11-7) and blocks (12-8).

Ruby Duncan finished with a match-high 18 kills to bring her season total to 284, a personal best for her. She also added four aces, two blocks and 11 digs. Faith Tarver had 12 kills, five blocks and 18 digs, with Miller collecting 36 assists and Sierra Hale a match-high 23 digs.

The Master's will be back home on Saturday when they host the OUAZ Spirit. Match is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.