In a well fought battle between two highly ranked teams, #7 The Master’s (23-4, 8-3 GSAC) edged out #12 Westmont (22-7, 5-6 GSAC) in five sets (25-27, 25-23, 25-20, 16-25, 16-14) in a Golden State Athletic Conference showdown. Westmont’s Madison Serrano led all players with 23 kills while Ciara Turner added 15 and Tessa Martin contributed 11.
“Looking at the talent of both teams, and both teams having an ‘on’ night, I knew we were going to be battling head to head,” said Westmont head coach Patti Cook. “This is one of the matches where people stepped up at different times. Ciara was playing well throughout the game and was very athletic. Candice (Adema) was consistent with good setting and distribution of the offense. She was firing on all cylindars. (Kristen) Schroeder and Kelly Ching were scrambling and were effectinve in their defense.”
The Mustangs held set point twice in the first set, but could not find the finishing point. A kill by Ciara Turner staved off the first set point, making in 24-24. After a Westmont service error made it 25-24 in favor of the Mustangs, Westmont’s Madison Serrano responded with three straight kills to give Westmont a one-set-to-none lead.
In the second set, The Master’s jumped out to a 12-6 lead. However, the Warriors whittled away at the Mustang’s advantage, eventually tying the match at 19-all. Still tied at 23, The Mustangs’ Rachel Taylor produced a kill, then teamed up with Britnay Jones for a block to claim the second set.
Again in the third set, The Master’s took control early, going up 10-5. This time, however, the Warriors were unable to make up the difference as the Mustangs went up two sets to one.
The fourth set saw the Warriors take control early and hold on to tie the match at two sets each. Up 20-16, Westmont recorded the next five points on kills by Alexandria Wilson, Nichole Miller and Serrano and a couple of Mustang errors.
“In the fourth set, we were controling the tempo and our offense a little bit better and controling our block better,” said Cook. “Up until that point, we’d had a difficult time making the adjustments and going where we needed to go.”
In the fifth set, Westmont scored on six of the first eight serves, getting two kills each from Turner and Srrano in the process. But the Mustangs responded and tied the match at seven-all. At 13-13, a block by Aubrey Bekendam and Tori Calihan gave the Mustangs their first match point, but a service error tied the game at 14-14. The Master’s closed out the match on kills by Bekendam and Alyssa Gergins.
“The fifth set is always a game of inches and they found a half-inch more than us,” noted Cook. “It could have gone either way. Both sides were playing very well.
“It was good volleyball, fun to watch and fun to coach,” said Cook of the match. “You always want the outcome to go your way, but if you put everything out on the court, you have nothing to be ashamed of. We can be proud of the way we played tonight.”
The Warriors will play their final regular season home game of the 2012 season on Saturday night when they host Biola at seven o’clock.
