COSTA MESA -- Men's volleyball suffered a home defeat Friday night to the reigning NAIA Champions, The Master's, on Friday night.  The Lions hit .200 on the night and could not get much rolling until the third frame, but TMU never let the Lions lead for long, with the Mustangs winning 25-19, 25-20, 25-23.  TMU improved to 5-0, and the Lions dropped to 3-9.
 
What Happened?  The offense was efficient in the first set for the home side, despite the Blue and Gold never leading.  VU hit .348, with 11 kills and three errors on 23 attempts, while TMU hit .400 (14-4-25).  Service errors and some unfortunate bounces dropped the Lions in the first set.
 
Set 2:
A Cole Oliver and Braddock Duckworth block got VU its first advantage of the night, but the Mustangs skipped away with a 4-0 streak and never let Vanguard reclaim the lead or force a tie.  An ace by Colin Such and a block by Brock Henderson and Micah Sybesma pulled the Lions to within one at 6-5, but TMU had a 5-0 rebuttal.  The Lions had a .043 hitting rate in the second, with The Master's at a .296 clip.
 
Set 3:
The Blue and Gold had a .208 efficiency rating in the third, but the visiting Mustangs fired away at a .500 rate (14-2-24) to again lead for most of the period.  Strikes by Logan Freemon and Sybesma put the home side ahead 4-3, but TMU retook the advantage after that and did not let go.  Koa Laboy and Duckworth got kills as the period moved along, thanks to some good passing by Willy Wang, and back-to-back aces by Sybesma yanked the Lions to within one at 23-22.  However, TMU called a timeout to freeze him and exchanged evenly from there to take the set 25-23.
 
Freemon led VU with seven kills, Wang had a team-high 12 assists, and both Such and Jacob Bayston had a team-high four digs.
 
What's Next?  Vanguard goes to TMU tomorrow night for a 5:00 p.m. rematch.