Box Score Head Coach
McKenna Hafner did not have to wait long for her first win.
The Master's women's volleyball team, ranked No. 23 in the NAIA Pre-Season poll, defeated the Bushnell Beacons in five sets in the first match of the Hope Summer Slam tournament in Fullerton, Calif.
The Lady Mustangs had to come from behind to get the 5-set win to start their season, 25-18, 21-25, 22-25, 25-20, 15-5.
"I'm thrilled that we were able to battle, especially after last year when we were not too successful in 5-set matches," said Coach Hafner. "I was really proud of them fighting back to get the win."
Last season TMU went 0-3 in 5-set matches, yet still won the GSAC regular-season championship and the conference post-season tournament.
After swapping the first two sets, the Beacons opened the third going up 5-1. But The Master's reversed that momentum, scoring an 11-4 run of their own to go up 12-9. The teams traded points until it was still a 3-point lead for TMU, but Bushnell fought back to tie it a 21-21. A kill by TMU's
Grace Colburn gave the Lady Mustangs the lead, but the Beacons snagged the final four points of the set to win by three and take a 2-1 lead.
With momentum on their side, Bushnell jumped out to a 3-0 lead to start the fourth. Only this time, The Master's came right back to tie it at 3-3. Again the teams traded points until three straight for the Beacons that made it 9-6 forced Coach Hafner to call a timeout.
Whatever she said in the huddle worked.
The Lady Mustangs went on a 9-0 run to grab a 15-9 lead in the must-win set. But the Beacons countered with a 6-0 run to tie it at 15-15. The next four points went to TMU though, and the team rode that cushion to the eventual 25-20 win.
Colburn, the reigning GSAC Player of the Year, had six kills in that fourth set alone, including the final two to help the Lady Mustangs.
This time it was TMU that was riding the wave of momentum, winning the first five points of the final set before finishing it off with a 10-point victory.
The team finished with 15 aces in the match, including five for All-GSAC junior libero
Sierra Hale.
"Serving kept us in the game and we hit the targets we needed to hit," Coach Hafner said. "Putting Bushnell out of system was critical, especially in sets four and five."
Colburn finished with a team-high 12 kills followed by 11 from freshman
Macy Gebhards, 10 from Bella Amet and another 10 from
McKenna Brady. Starting setter
Kate Wagner added 28 assists.
The Master's will be back in action later Friday when they play No. 14 Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH). Then on Saturday the Lady Mustangs are scheduled to play Simpson at 10 a.m. and No. 6 Southern Oregon at 2 p.m.
