SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – The Vanguard women's volleyball team put forth a spirited effort in hopes of pulling off a comeback road win against The Master's, but the Mustangs prevailed in a marathon fourth set to take the match in GSAC action on Saturday. Set scores went 25-20, 25-11, 23-25, 33-31.
The Lions lost their sixth straight match to fall to 10-7 on the season, including 5-6 in the GSAC. The Mustangs moved to 7-14 and 3-8 in league play.
What Happened?: For the Lions, Cambria Fernandez (SR/Northridge, CA) notched 12 kills and 12 digs for her 11th double-double of the year. Fernandez hit .289 (12-1-38) for the match. Danielle Bellfi (SR/Murrieta, CA) added 10 kills. Madeline DeLucia (SO/Happy Valley, OR) and Rachel Lim (FR/La Palma, CA) split setting duties, and handed out 15 and 10 assists, respectively. Kynzey Mitzel (SR/Tigard, OR) tallied a match-high 25 digs. For the Master's, three players reached double figures in kills, as Faith Tarver had a match-high 17, Emily Scott 15 and Ruby Duncan 14.
The Master's hit .224 for the match, while the Lions swung at a .100 clip. The Mustangs were effective from the service line, garnering 12 aces including five from setter Natalie Collins. VU continued to display a solid block with a 13.0-7.0 edge in that category.
Set 1
Trailing 15-11, Vanguard went on a 4-0 run to even the scoreline at 15-15. The Lions trailed 21-20 when The Master's scored the final four points to close out the set at 25-20. Scott had a pair of kills and Collins served up a pair of aces to close things out. Bellfi, Fernandez and Payton Darm accounted for all eight Lion kills in the first set. Scott led The Master's with five kills and Tarver added four. The Mustangs hit .312 to VU's .086 as The Master's took a 25-20 set one victory.
Set 2
Vanguard struggled to stay in the set as The Master's rolled to a 25-11 win. The Mustangs raced out to a 5-0 lead as Scott and Tarver combined for three kills early on. Up 6-2, the Mustangs used another big run, a 6-0 spurt to go up 12-2 and force a VU timeout. The Mustangs led by as many as 15, 20-5, when Vanguard reeled off three straight to close to 20-8. Emily Clark's kill at set point put The Master's up two sets to none. The Master's hit .233 and held VU to a -.074 mark. The Master's had four aces for the second consecutive set.
Set 3
The Lions turned the momentum as they never trailed in set three. Service aces from Blair Dodge (FR/Aliso Viejo, CA), DeLucia and Fernandez helped VU forge an 8-2 lead. The Mustangs pulled three points back to trim the deficit to 8-5, but Samantha Arellano (SR/Tulare, CA), Hailey Petersen (JR/Omaha, NE) and Bellfi supplied kills to put VU up 11-6. Back-and-forth the teams went as The Master's answered with a 4-0 run to close to 11-10 and force a VU timeout. The Mustangs extended the run to five straight before a Callie Bickmore (SO/Auburn, CA) kill regained the lead for Vanguard at 12-11. Fernandez later extended the lead to 18-15 on an ace, and the Lions remained on top at 20-17 on a Mitzel ace. Up by four at 21-17, Vanguard surrendered the next three points as head coach Jennifer Dorn called a timeout. The two teams traded points when Vanguard went up 24-23 on a Fernandez kill, prompting a TMU timeout. However, the stoppage didn't work as Scott's attack attempt went wide, giving VU the 25-23 set three triumph. VU limited TMU to .229 hitting while attacking at .121 (10-5-33) efficiency. The Lions collected five service aces.
Set 4
An entertaining, back-and-forth battle ensued as Vanguard jumped out to an early 5-2 lead on a Petersen kill. The Master's battled back with five of the next six points to take a 7-6 lead. Unfazed, VU rattled off five straight points to retake the lead at 11-7 as TMU called timeout. Later on, Fernandez slammed another kill to extend the advantage to 14-8. The Mustangs closed to 15-12, but the Lions went on a 4-0 run to take its biggest lead of the set, 19-12. The Lions increased the lead to eight, 22-14, on a TMU attack error and looked to be in control. But the Mustangs had other ideas and scored four straight to trim the deficit to 22-18. Bickmore and Petersen stuffed Williams on the next play to give VU a five point advantage at 23-18. But back came the Mustangs with three in a row to pull within two. Vanguard made it 24-21 on a kill by Fernandez but The Master's survived three straight match points to tie the set. The 24-24 scoreline represented the first of eight straight ties, the last at 31-31 following a VU attack error. The Mustangs finished out the match on a VU ball handling error and Duncan's 14th kill.
Why It's Important?: The Lions have lost the first set in all six losses, and VU is now in sixth place in the GSAC. The Master's avenged a four-set loss to Vanguard in Costa Mesa on Sept. 10.
What's Next?: Vanguard returns to action on Friday, Oct. 22 with a road match against Life Pacific.
