By Mason Nesbitt, TMU Sports Information Director

One night during the summer of 2017, Curtis Lewis settled into a seat inside Staples Center and watched as a choreographed tag-team effort unfolded.

After a few minutes, Los Angeles Kings players skated toward the bench and clambered over the wall, teammates jumping onto the ice to relieve them.

It gave The Master’s University women’s soccer coach an idea: Why couldn’t he employ similar tactics?

What if he deployed one set of Mustangs for a 20-minute spurt and then turned to a fresh group for another 20, creating a frenzied, high-pressure situation for an opponent’s defense?

So, the strategy was set in motion, a system that lifted Master’s to one of its most prolific offensive seasons in program history last year and, it hopes, to another run in the NAIA national tournament in 2018.

“We had really the same group of girls that scored 25 goals in 2015 and 22 goals in 2016 now score 56 goals last year,” Lewis said, “and a huge part of that is the system. It’s the high pressure. It’s the willingness to be 100 percent for those 20 minutes. It’s a team-first mentality.”

The Mustangs – picked third in the Golden State Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll and 17th nationally – return most of a roster that won 15 games and advanced to the second round of the NAIA tournament in 2017. Their goal total was two short of the program record.

Jasmine Logan, whose last name was Parada before she married over the offseason, did the heavy lifting, scoring a career-high 16 goals with five assists on her way to GSAC co-Player of the Year and NAIA second-team All-American honors.

She was the first Mustang to win conference POY since 2014, but she was hardly alone.

Hailey Gomillion (pictured above, left), an honorable mention All-American, scored five goals and led the GSAC with eight assists in 2017. Lynnae George scored five goals with six assists. Both forwards are back for their senior year.

Lewis’ use of “hockey lines” – subbing out three forwards, two outside halfbacks and two midfielders after 20 minutes – earned buy-in from players when the team won its first seven games of the season. This year, he’s dubbed the units “red line and blue line,” with plans to sometimes start one, sometimes the other, with a “green line” always at the ready.

His faith in the philosophy has not waned. In fact, he’s hoping for 60 collective goals this time – though he said it might be unrealistic to expect another 16 from Logan, who’s now commuting daily from Orange County where she lives with her husband.

Lewis would be pleased with 10 from the speedy forward. He believes the additions of freshmen strikers Kyndel Borman and Emma Hopkins will provide another eight goals combined. Logan agrees.

“I think they’re going to push us to the next level,” she said.

Lewis, too, hopes diversified scoring will help the team avoid an offensive drought like the one it suffered at the end of 2017. Had it not been for an uptick in defensive performance, the team might not have advanced to the GSAC tournament semifinals or beaten Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.), 1-0, in the NAIA’s first round.

The defense’s improvement couldn’t be credited to any one player. Honorable mention All-American Kayla Peterson (now a junior) provided steady play all year. Gianna Crimi was also solid.

But the insertion of Laura English onto the back line in the final quarter of the season was undeniably impactful.

“Laura is not fancy,” Lewis said of the now-junior. “She just gets the job done. You don’t even realize she’s that good, but she is that good.”

English and Peterson figure to anchor the defense again, with the help of senior Anna Brazil, who missed most of 2017. Brazil is another physical, no-nonsense defender who should work well with goalkeeper Lacey Lehman. Lehman made 15 saves in four starts last season.

The Mustangs’ midfield should be a strength. Kellian Ahearn, a fifth-year senior who twice tore her ACL, decided to come back and pursue her Master of Business Administration. She brings tenacity to the middle of the field, fighting for 50/50 balls, by land and by air.

She’ll be joined in the midfield by redshirt-junior Vanessa Lourenco. Lourenco played forward last season. But before a game this spring, Gomillion and Lewis were mulling over strategy, and the topic of shifting Lourenco to midfielder came up.

How did Lourenco fair at her new position in the spring?

“She found her home,” Lewis said. “She was fantastic. A good ball-winner. She was tenacious. She looked like she had energy and passion.”

Master’s opened its regular season Saturday on the road against No. 6 Southeastern University (Fla.).

For the full schedule, click here.