Braden Van Groningen took advantage of an overpass on match point to hammer the ball to the floor to give The Master’s University their first-ever Golden State Athletic Conference Championship in men’s volleyball.

The No. 4-ranked Mustangs (17-4) defeated No. 2 Vanguard 29-27, 18-25, 25-19, 25-19. The win means TMU has automatically qualified as one of 12 teams for the NAIA National Championship Tournament which gets started April 11 in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Since our program started we have been getting better and better each year,” said TMU Head Coach Jared Goldberg. “In terms of the game today, we came out serving really well. We fought off a game point or two in that first set and then got the win. So that was a really big turn for us.”

The Master’s opened up a 7-1 lead in the first set, only to see the Lions chip away at that lead until it was tied 19-19. After going back and forth to tie it at 27-27, a service ace by Nolan Flexen was followed by a Van Groningen kill to give The Master’s the first set.

It was the first time this season The Master’s won a set against Vanguard. In the two previous meetings, the Lions won each match 3-0.

Vanguard flipped the script in the second set, jumping out to a 5-1 lead. The Mustangs were never able to challenge in the set, falling behind by as much as nine points before dropping the set 18-25.

The third set was a battle, with both teams taking narrow leads only to see the other come back. But after it was tied 15-15, The Master’s closed out the set on a 10-4 run to win it by six.

The fourth set started like the third. The Mustangs led 16-14 before once again closing out strong, winning the match on a 9-4 run to claim the team’s first conference title.

The Mustangs hit .355 for the match, led by Nolan Flexen’s 28 kills (.447 hit %). Will Avera had nine kills, Van Groningen had nine as well and Isaac Seltzer finished with eight. Brett Norkus led the team with four blocks, while Avera added three. Matthew Hamm finished the four sets with 44 assists.

The NAIA will determine which teams will get an at-large berth into the national championship tournament and then create the seeds. The men’s volleyball selection show will be presented on the NAIA YouTube channel Monday starting at 2 p.m. PDT.