It was the perfect home opener for The Master’s University women’s volleyball team as they swept the California Lutheran Regals 25-19, 25-20, 25-11 Tuesday night in The MacArthur Center.

TMU improves to 8-1 on the season with the win over a team that is receiving votes for consideration in the top 25 of NCAA Division 3.

“Ruby Duncan had a well-rounded match hitting, defensively and adding in some aces as well,” said Head Coach Annett Davis. “Timberlie Miller did a great job spreading out the offense and added in some perfectly executed dumps. As a team we also blocked pretty well today which is something we’ve been working on.”

The Lady Mustangs had a 9-3 block advantage, led 42-26 in kills and 7-2 in aces.

But the win certainly didn’t come easy as the Regals held the lead midway through each of the first two sets, only to see the Lady Mustangs blaze back and close out strong.

In the first set, Cal Lu led by two several times before TMU broke a 12-12 tie, closing on a 13-7 run. A similar story in the second set saw the Regals lead 14-11, only to once again watch as The Master’s closed out the set with a 14-6 advantage.

In the final set the Lady Mustangs led throughout, reeling off 10 straight points to stretch a 13-9 lead into a 14-point difference before consecutive kills from Madeline Cooke and Faith Tarver clinched the match for TMU.

As a team The Master’s hit .282, with both Ruby Duncan and Faith Tarver leading the way with 11 kills each. Duncan added four more service aces to raise her nation-leading total to 34 in the first nine matches. She also led the team with 11 digs.

Cora Machado finished with six kills and five blocks, with Timberlie Miller getting 32 assists.

The Lady Mustangs travel to Sioux City, Iowa later this week for a four-game tournament. Three of the four opponents are ranked in the NAIA Pre-Season Poll in the top 10. Friday’s first match will be against No. 9 Midland University, followed by an afternoon match against No. 1 University of Jamestown. Go to GoMustangs.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule for the scheduled start times.