Mustangs defeat Redhawks in 5

Box Score For only the second time in 19 matches, The Master's men's volleyball team found themselves in a fifth set. And just like the first time against Stanford, the Mustangs were able to win the decisive game to defeat the Benedictine Mesa Redhawks Friday night in The MacArthur Center.

The Mustangs (19-0, 8-0) won 24-26, 25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 15-12.

The attack separated TMU from BenU, as The Master's hit .314 while collecting 70 kills. The Redhawks picked up 53 kills while hitting .250. And while the Mustangs had a slight 8-7 advantage in blocks, both teams aced the other six times.

"We played a team that competed well," said TMU Head Coach Jared Goldberg. "I thought they were really good from the serving/passing side of the game."

TMU was able to get as much as a 7-point lead in the first set, only to see BenU go on a 9-3 run to close it to within one at 18-17. The Mustangs picked up three of the next five to go up 21-19, but a 5-1 run put the Redhawks at set point 24-22. The Master's got the next two on kills by Braden Van Groningen to tie it at 24-24, but a kill by Benedictine Mesa's Dapre Rogers was followed by one from teammate Landon Fuller to give the Redhawks the win.

Set two started almost identically to set one, with the Master's jumping out to a 9-6 lead, only to find BenU fighting back. The difference, however, was the Redhwaks could not get themselves into the lead. They got to within one at 23-22, but a service error followed by a Will Avera ace propelled the Mustangs to the set win.

Once again the third set was all Masters, grabbing a 12-6 lead to force a Benedictine Mesa timeout. And while the Redhawks got to within two on a couple occasions, TMU finished the set off with a Van Groningen kill to go up 2-1 in sets.

The fourth set was beginning to look like a Mustangs' runaway as they went up 5-1 and carried all the momentum. But this Redhawks team proved why it is ranked No. 6 in the country as it fought back and took the lead 9-8. Moments later it rattled off a 5-0 run to go up 14-10. That lead proved insurmountable as BenU forced a fifth set with a 25-21 win.

The Master's wasted little time putting themselves in a position to win, going up 3-1, 4-2, and 5-3. After BenU tied it at 7-7, two kills from Isaac Seltzer and another by Van Groningen put the Mustangs up 10-7. The teams swapped points from there on out, and when Van Groningen hammered the final blow, it was The Master's taking the fifth set 15-12 and getting their 19 win in a row.

"We didn't play the cleanest volleyball we have this year, but it's good to be able to win some of those matches sometimes," Goldberg said. "BenU is a very good team. There is no question about that. They could be a team we see a couple more times [in the conference tournament and then again at the national tournament]. We always look forward to competing against them as it always goes back and forth."

Van Groningen finished with 20 kills followed by Seltzer's career-high 17, Trace Oswald's career-high-tying 13 and Max McCullough's 11. Bryce Jones had 43 assists with Matthew Hamm, getting his first action in weeks, added 18 dimes. McCullough added five blocks with Oswald and Jones each getting four.

The Master's will be back in The MacArthur Center on Saturday when they take on the Park-Gilbert Buccaneers.