The Master's University men's volleyball team got a home win over OUAZ on Friday in three sets, playing strong defense on a top-ranked Spirit offense.
Isaac Seltzer and
Trace Oswald both had double-digit kills as TMU poured in a strong defensive effort, headlined by eight blocks. A Spirit offense that ranked top-5 in the NAIA in almost every major offensive category, was held to just a .060 hitting percentage
"We played a great game defensively," TMU Head Coach
Jared Goldberg said. "Our servers did a great job keeping them off balance and the blocks were huge. Their middles were their best players and we did a good job of neutralizing them."
The first set started out relatively close, but around the halfway mark, TMU started to pull away. The Mustangs had leads of 16-11 and 17-12 and closed the first set on a 6-3 run to take the opening set win.
While the first set was more back-and-forth volleyball, the second set was a set of runs. TMU opened the frame with a 3-0 run, but OUAZ tied it right back up a 7-7 with a run of their own. The Master's went back in front with a 4-0 stretch, capped by a kill by
Garrett Beall. The Mustangs used two more 3-0 runs to firmly take control and Seltzer's back-to-back kills put TMU up 2-0.
TMU again jumped out to a 3-0 lead and used another run to take a 13-9 lead, with the win in sight. Seltzer's service aces gave TMU four in a row and their largest lead of the set at 19-12. OUAZ tried to rally but another Mustang run, this time finished off by Oswald, gave TMU the win.
The Master's improved to 9-0 on the young season and 2-0 in GSAC play. They will play host to ACU next on Saturday in The MacArthur Center.
