In an epic battle that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, The Master's women's volleyball team defeated the OUAZ Spirit 22-25, 25-9, 25-23, 24-26, 15-7 Saturday in a huge conference match up in The MacArthur Center.
The win moves the Lady Mustangs (14-3, 7-2) into a tie for third place in the GSAC standings with Life Pacific. The Spirit drop into second place behind Arizona Christian.
TMU collected 60 kills to the Spirit's 46, out hit OUAZ (.140 to .068) and won the service ace battle (7-5). The Spirit did get an edge on blocks (7-6).
"We definitely knew it was going to be a big fight, so I'm happy that we stayed resilient and showed some real toughness today," said TMU Head Coach
McKenna Hafner. "We've been talking about that a lot because we've been facing a lot of adversity and this match was just another part of that. So I'm glad we were able to battle hard, be disciplined and come out on top of the battle that it was."
The win also avenges a 3-set loss to Life Pacific two days ago, a match that was never even close.
"We had several conversations as a team since (the Life Pacific match) and I think we ultimately needed that loss to be confronted with some problems that we had and some discipline issues," Coach Hafner said. "And so I think that we responded as great as I could have wanted them to. Obviously it isn't going to solve every problem in 48 hours, but I think we showed up and were much tougher today and fought for our points, earned our points and so that was my favorite response. I think as a coach having a team that is as responsive as this group has been is a really big privilege. We've talked from the beginning of the year how maturity is going to be our biggest push this year and I think that today demonstrated that we do have that. And so I'm thankful for our leadership, our older core group of players that continue to push that message forward and thankful for the younger ones that buy in. And so I ultimately am really proud of them for really what was a pretty humiliating loss. To turn around and have a really big win is hard to do."
With the notable exception of the second set, the match against the Spirit Saturday was a punch counter-punch affair. A 5-set match is tough enough, but within those sets were points won off very long rallies. The longest rally had 40 touches between the two teams with athleticism showcased on both sides. Diving saves, one-handed jabs to keep a ball alive and punctuated attacks kept the fans on their feet for most of the match.
Both sides were gassed by the time it was over.
The Lady Mustangs were led by Bella Amet with a career-high 22 kills from 61 attacks. Both
Macy Gebhards and Kinsley Kollman each added 11 kills.
Kate Wagner finished with 41 assists while
Sierra Hale added another 10 from her libero position. Both finished with three aces. Kollman led the back line with a career-high 29 digs.
The Master's will get a re-match against the Life Pacific Warriors on Wednesday at home in The MacArthur Center. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
