The Master’s University women’s volleyball team won’t need to perform an extensive search to find the last time it was swept by Westmont in Santa Barbara before going on to achieve the lion’s share of its season goals.

The Mustangs lost in three at Westmont last season before claiming the first Golden State Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles in program history. Those feats remain very much in play after Saturday’s 3-0 road loss to the No. 17-ranked Warriors.

Set scores were 25-18, 25-19 and 25-18.

No. 25 Master’s dropped to 7-6 overall and 2-1 in GSAC play. It will look to regain the form it showed last fall — when it went 16-2 in GSAC competition — this weekend when Hope International and Life Pacific pay a visit to TMU.

Saturday, Westmont (11-2, 3-0) stonewalled the Mustangs at the net and dug anything that managed to navigate its way through, limiting Master’s to a .107 hitting percentage. Madi Fay and Regan Tate led TMU with five kills each, and Katie Emmerling totaled 17 assists.

“They outplayed us,” Emmerling said. “… I don’t think our mentality was horrible. I think we came together as a team. I think it was physical (not mental).”

The Mustangs kept the score close early in all three sets, but on each occasion, the Warriors pulled away and earned a comfortable lead by the time they climbed into the 20s.

Hali Galloway compiled 11 kills and one error for the Warriors, who lost two out of their three meetings with TMU in 2018, including a loss in the GSAC tournament title game.

Mustang coach Allan Vince expected that game, in particular, would motivate Westmont on Saturday evening — that, and a large home crowd.

“Westmont brought a great crowd which fueled their play,” Vince said. “They had a blocker on most of our attacks and hardly let the ball hit the ground. We struggled to find ways to score and couldn’t adapt quick enough to be as effective as I know this team can be here.”

Emmerling enjoyed playing in front of a mostly full gym, which included a large contingent of Mustang fans, even if the result wasn’t what she was hoping for.

“It was very intense. I didn’t mind it. I thought it was fun to have such a big crowd around me,” she said. “It just didn’t work out too well for us.”

— Game Recap By Mason Nesbitt, TMU Sports Information Director