In a tense three sets that found The Master’s University’s women’s volleyball team having to come from behind, the No. 1-seeded Lady Mustangs defeated the No. 4-seed Embry-Riddle Eagles 25-22, 26-24, 25-17 to win the semifinals of the GSAC Women’s Volleyball Championship Tournament Tuesday night, Nov. 12 in The MacArthur Center.

Now TMU (19-6) will host No. 2-seed Benedictine Mesa on Saturday for the GSAC Tournament Championship. The Redhawks defeated the OUAZ Spirit in four sets in the other semifinal.

The Master’s fell behind by three points in the first set, only to battle back to win it by three. But nothing was more dramatic than what happened in set number two.

The Eagles were able to completely dominate the second set, building a 10-point lead at 19-9. But TMU would come back, going on a 7-1 run to get to within four at 20-16. The two teams then split the next six points, giving Embry-Riddle a 23-19 advantage. The Eagles were able to work it to set point at 24-21, but two aces and three Lady Mustangs’ kills later, TMU had scored the final five points of the set to win it by two.

“In the locker room (after the match) I was telling them that it showed that you guys just don’t quit,” said TMU Head Coach Annett Davis. “It doesn’t matter what the deficit is, we’re not stopping until it’s 25 or we’ve won by two. And that’s a great attitude to have. Obviously, I never want them to be down by 10 points, but if we ever are down we have the experience to know that we can do this because we’ve done it before.”

The third set started with The Master’s riding that wave of momentum, but Embry-Riddle fought back and took the lead at 10-8. TMU went on another 7-1 run to go up by three, and after the Eagles tied it at 15-15, the Lady Mustangs scored 10 of the final 12 points to put away the match with an eight point set win.

“I think their biggest strengths were their setter (Katie Rolle) and their middle (Dalia Haase),” Davis said. “We held (Haase) to zero hitting percentage and the last time we played them (Rolle) got 11 kills on us and we held her to two. So for me, those were the two biggest players we needed to take out to do well and we did.”

Grace Colburn finished with a game-high 14 kills, hit .385 for the match, had a game-high 14 digs and added a pair of aces, the second of which put TMU at match-point. Ruby Duncan had 11 kills with both Duncan and Andrea Barrera leading the way with three blocks. Kate Wagner finished with a team-high 27 assists.

The GSAC Championship match will happen Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. in The MacArthur Center.

For more information visit GoMustangs.com.