The Master’s University beach volleyball team came away with a 3-2 win Friday, April 4 in the final match of the regular season.

The No. 3-ranked Sandy ‘Stangs (13-10, 10-2) needed to get a win from their ones pair of Annika Gudnason and Evi Roberts to keep their chances of making it to the team’s first-ever NAIA National Championship Tournament alive.

And it came precariously close to not happening.

With the contest tied at 2-2, and the ones match tied at 1-1 in sets, the final match of the day went to a decisive third set. And the pair of Gudnason/Roberts found themselves down 14-11, triple match point.

But then they rallied.

The ones pair from The Master’s tied that final set at 14-14 and went on to win it 19-17 to claim their match and give TMU the victory.

And the national championship hopes remain strong.

“It was Senior Day for Hope and they played very well,” said TMU Head Coach Annett Davis. “But our team was resilient. It really could have gone either way, so I’m thankful to come away with the win. Our girls are fighters in what seemed like impossible odds. They dug deep and came through.”

The Sandy ‘Stangs also got wins from the twos pair of Faith Wada and Zoe Yates (21-12, 21-13) and from the threes pair of Violet Avila and Grace Colburn (21-11, 21-10). The fours of Ellie Niehus/Ellie Unruh and the fives of Emma Winter and Arianna DeRaffaele each lost their matches in two sets.

The Master’s will next have the GSAC Championships, which will be held on April 10-11 in Huntington Beach.

The NAIA National Championships will be held at the Greeneville Beach Volleyball Complex in Greeneville, Tenn. April 24-26.

For more information visit GoMustangs.com.