Trace Oswald had a career night with 28 kills as The Master's University topped Arizona Christian in four sets on Saturday in The MacArthur Center.
It was a career high for Oswald as he hit .476 on 42 attempts. TMU struggled early, but dominated the rest of the way, hitting .447 overall for the match.Â
However, in the first set, it was ACU who had control, building up a 9-4 lead early on. The Master's still trailed 20-14 late in the set, but started to put a run together. A 6-1 run, with four kills from Oswald, got TMU right back into the game at 24-23, but ACU pulled ahead on a set-sealing kill of their own.
"ACU played really well offensively and we just came out a little bit flat," TMU Head Coach
Jared Goldberg said. "I appreciate how we battled back in that first set."
TMU regrouped in the second set, using a 3-0 run to go ahead 13-9 in a back-and-forth set. TMU then scored four in a row and evened it back up off yet another kill from Oswald.
"
Trace Oswald did a really good job and taking over offensively and put up some really good numbers," Coach Goldberg said. "But we can certainly can continue to improve regarding our own consistency."
The Master's held a strong lead for most of the third set, leading by margins of 17-10 and 18-11. Oswald scored TMU's last four points and the Mustangs took the lead off a 25-20 win.
TMU again struck first in the final frame, leading by as many as nine. Oswald continued to play efficiently, but he got some help from
Isaac Seltzer who finished with 14 kills. The Master's took the final set and dominated in almost every statistical category including kills, aces, blocks, assists and digs.
Matthew Hamm totaled 52 assists, while
Preston Schmidt had 16 digs for TMU.
The Master's improved to 10-0 and 3-0 in GSAC play and will face Benedictine Mesa on the road on Friday, looking to keep their perfect season alive.
