Box Score The Master's men's volleyball team traveled to Costa Mesa Friday night to take on former GSAC rival Vanguard, coming home with a 3-set win over the Lions.
The Mustangs, ranked No. 1 in the NAIA and the defending national champions, took care of their old foe 25-19, 25-20, 25-23 to stay undefeated on the season.
It was the first time the team played in nearly three weeks.
"We had some stretches tonight where we were playing really good defense and getting touches up at the net," said TMU Head Coach
Jared Goldberg. "Still working on finishing sets a bit cleaner, but saw a lot of good things from the team tonight." .
TMU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first set and never look back, holding a 6-point advantage midway through the set. The Lions made a comeback bid late, closing to within three at 20-17. But the Mustangs went on a 4-0 run to take it to set point at 24-17 before taking the 6-point win.
The Lions started the second set with a 1-0 lead, their first of the match, only to find Master's respond on a 6-1 run to go up by four. The Mustangs increased their lead to as much as eight at 15-7 before three straight from Vanguard made it 15-10. From there the teams traded points, with The Master's taking a 5-point set two victory.
The third set started tight with both teams swapping points and the set tied five times at 5-5. Master's then collected six of the next nine points to go up 11-8. The teams swapped points again, with Vanguard never getting closer than two points and Master's never opening up a lead of more than four.
But with the Mustangs leading 23-19, the Lions scored three straight to cut the lead to one. After Head Coach
Jared Goldberg called a timeout, the Lions served up an error to take the game to match point.
Isaac Seltzer then got his match-high 12th kill of the night to seal the match for the Mustangs.
TMU hit .395 for the match and held the Lions to just .200. The Mustangs had more kills (43-26), but were out-blocked (6-2) and out-served (4-2 in aces).
Andrew Karges followed Seltzer will 11 kills and
Trace Oswald added 10.
Matthew Hamm dished 40 assists over the three sets (13.3 per set).
The two teams will face off again on Saturday when it will be The Master's hosting the Lions in The MacArthur Center. First serve is scheduled for 5 p.m.
"Now the battle is to reset and take advantage of the opportunity to play the same talented team tomorrow at home," Goldberg said.Â
