GREENEVILLE, Tenn. -- The greatest season in The Master's beach volleyball history ended in the quarterfinals Friday as the team lost to conference-rival Ottawa University of Arizona 2-3 in the NAIA Beach Volleyball Championship tournament.
It was the first time the Sandy Stangs made it to the national stage, one of eight teams making the trip to eastern Tennessee. The Mustangs finished the season ranked No. 3 and had the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
"Before the Ottawa game, I stressed [to the team] that I really wanted this to be a battle... I wanted it to be hard-fought," said TMU Head Coach
Annett Davis. "Whether they win or lose I wanted them to fight hard. And I think that's exactly what they did. I don't remember seeing any tears after that match, and I think part of that is because we did all we could do. We left it all on the sand."
The day started rough as TMU lost to No. 2-seed Corban (OR) 1-4 in the final match of pool play. The lone win came from the No. 1 pair of
Annika Gudnason and
Evi Roberts, who won their match 22-20, 22-20.
That placed the Sandy Stangs as the No. 2 team out of Pool B, which lined the team up to play OUAZ in the quarterfinals. The Spirit went into the tournament as the No. 1 seed, but lost two of their three matches in Pool A to fall to the No. 3 spot.
TMU got wins from the No. 3 pair of
Violet Avila and
Grace Colburn (21-17, 16-21, 15-7) and the No. 4 pair of
Isabela Rodriguez and
Ashlyn Unruh (21-19, 21-19).
"I think the team worked really hard for both matches," said
Annika Gudnason, a member of the 1s pair. "We played against some really good schools and it showed on the court that we didn't let anything go. We gave everything that we had today, it just didn't go in our favor."
Having just completed the team's sixth year, the growth of the program has been steady. From a 4-12 season in the year after Covid, to finishing the 2025 campaign ranked No. 3 in the nation, the journey has been one Coach Davis cherishes.
"Some of them were not very good when they got to Master's," Coach Davis recalled. "We talked about it [after the OUAZ match], we laughed about it. Some of them, like
Ellie Niehus, hadn't played beach before. Evi (Roberts) could not set up a block to save her life and she couldn't really pass balls. But to see them go from then to now and how they've progressed... Evi's now the best blocker and an All-American. Annika (Gudnason) is someone I said no to lots of times and she was really wanting to be a part of the team. SO I gave her a shot because she's a hard worker and for her to go from being part of the last pair, to earning the fourth spot her first year, to becoming a 1s pair her second year, and now one of the best defenders I've seen and an All-American... This group has grown tremendously in their skills and that, couple with their friendships, their work ethic and really wanting to honor the Lord, I think this has been overall the most solid group we've had."
For six players --
Violet Avila,
Annika Gudnason,
Ellie Niehus,
Evi Roberts,
Ellie Unruh and
Faith Wada --
 their time being a part of this team has come to an end.
"I think it was an absolute blessing," Gudnason said. "Being at Master's itself is just amazing and having a beach volleyball team was so fun to be a part of. My career was super fun. We have a very high level of play, especially in GSAC, and being coached by Annett I think was super fun. Just to be on this team is amazing. So it was a blessing overall."
