Behind 12 kills from GSAC Player of the Year
Isaac Seltzer, The Master's men's volleyball team defeated the Arizona Christian Firestorm 25-14, 25-18, 25-17 in the semifinals of the GSAC Men's Volleyball Championship tournament.
The Mustangs will now face No. 2-seed OUAZ Spirit, which defeated Benedictine Mesa in the other semifinal, on Saturday at 2 p.m.
The Spirit are the only team to defeat TMU in the last two seasons, claiming a 5-set win just this past Saturday.
Against ACU Tuesday night, The Master's won with a solid combination of good hitting (.395), tough serving (nine aces) and good defense that limited the Firestorm to a .104 hitting percentage.
"We certainly came out firing from the start," said TMU Head Coach
Jared Goldberg. "Our guys were playing really assertive and aggressive, which was good to see. We took care of the ball well tonight and certainly had a much improved serving and passing night. We put incredible pressure on (ACU) from the service line. Part of that has to do with focus and part of that has to do with being in our home gym and feeling comfortable. But in general, our service pressure was excellent tonight."
The first set was all Master's as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead and did nothing but build on it. An 8-1 run in the middle of the set pushed the lead to 10 points before the teams traded points at the end of the set to give the Mustangs the 11-point win.
Set two was different in that it was Arizona Christian that grabbed an early 10-6 lead. But the Mustangs answered with a 6-1 run to take the lead, and after ACU tied it at 12-12, it was all Master's, closing out the set on a 13-6 run to take a 2-o set lead.
The third set was almost exactly like the first with The Master's grabbing a 5-1 lead, only this team the cushion stayed anywhere from three to five points. After a service error made it 17-13, Master's closed out the set on an 8-4 run to win the set by eight points and claim the match.
Trace Oswald finished with 11 kills and tied his career high with six aces. He now holds the single-season program record with 45 aces.
Matthew Hamm dished 38 assists, while
Garrett Beall had eight kills, hit .700 in the match and added a pair of blocks.
Now the rematch on Saturday with OUAZ, which is exactly what the Mustangs wanted.
"Competing," Coach Goldberg said when asked what he is looking forward to most with the coming match. "Guys are going to come out and be focused and compete hard, and as much as we are trying to win the GSAC tournament and repeat that for the fourth consecutive year, we are also just trying to play our best volleyball at the end of the year. It's really a one game at a time thing and Saturday's match is our next game."
