In the most important match of the year, The Master's women's volleyball team came away with their biggest win of the year, knocking off No. 25 Benedictine Mesa 25-21, 26-24, 25-22 to move into first place in the conference Friday afternoon.
The Lady Mustangs (17-6, 11-2) had more kills (49-32), a better attack percentage (.231 to .135), with both teams getting the same number of blocks (3-3) and BenU getting the advantage in aces (5-3).
But it's the 3-0 win in sets that ultimately matters most.
"This was a great win for us," said TMU Head Coach Annett Davis. "They're a tough team, so obviously we didn't know how it was going to go. So to now be in first again is great."
The significance of this one match was huge, as the winner gets the likely spoils with one week remaining in the regular season. The top four teams in the 8-team GSAC will make the conference tournament, with the top two teams hosting semifinals on Tuesday, Nov. 12, and the highest remaining seed hosting the GSAC Championship on Saturday, Nov. 16.
With one more match to play in the season, The Master's would be home for both matches should the team win that final match next Friday.
And the way the tiebreaker works, not only did the Lady Mustangs need to win but they needed to win in either three or four sets, since BenU took the first match in five.
"Everyone did a great job following the scouting report and everyone did their jobs well," Davis said. "Even if they came off the bench, they executed [the game plan] to a tee. The middles did a great job and held their best hitter to a [low hitting percentage]. We were really focusing on making certain that we shut her down in particular, and we did."
The last time these two teams played each other was on Oct. 4 when the Redhawks came away with a 5-set win in Mesa. But the Lady Mustangs were dealing with injuries in that match. And while TMU wasn't up to full strength on Friday, there were several who returned to the court.
"Obviously having Grace (Colburn) back from her injury was big for us," Davis said. "And when we played them the first time we did not have this line-up. We now have both middle blockers and everyone is in their correct position, which makes us a tougher team."
Colburn finished with a game-high 17 kills and also collected two of the team's three aces. Both
Ruby Duncan and Kinsley Kollman had 12 kills, with
Timberlie Miller dishing 33 assists.
Sierra Hale led the back row with 14 digs.
Before the match, TMU's four seniors playing in their final regular season match in The MacArthur Center,
Ruby Duncan,
Cara Dunnigan,
Janae Henderson and
Timberlie Miller, were honored with their loved ones.
The Master's will travel to San Dimas, Calif next Friday to take on the Life Pacific Warriors for that final match of the regular season. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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