AZUSA, CALIF. -- All-American Jennifer French teamed with Tishanna Pope and Kerri Rivas to lead Azusa Pacific to a 15-6, 15-13, 15-1 victory over Concordia in a GSAC volleyball match Thursday night.
The Cougars out-scored Concordia 24-3 over the final game-and-a-half to record the sweep, which coupled with last Saturday's 3-game sweep of Hope International, gives Azusa Pacific its first back-to-back GSAC sweeps since 1995.
Down 11-6 in the second game, Azusa Pacific went on a 6-1 run to tie the game at 12-12, using an Eagle block error and 2 attack errors to get the rally going. Concordia took a 13-12 lead on a French attack error. However Azusa Pacific came back with 2 kills to knot the game at 13-13. Concordia then committed a string of 8 attack errors that allowed the Cougars to win game 2 and then jump to an 8-0 lead to start the third and deciding game.
Azusa Pacific caught fire in that third game, converting 28 attack attempts into 16 kills, thanks in part to sophomore Bonnie Whipple, who had 4 kills in just 6 attempts in game 3.
French finished with a match-high 15 kills followed by Pope's 12 and Rivas' 10. Pope was also in on 2 of Azusa Pacific's 5 blocks.
Concordia, which did not have a block in the match, was paced by Laura Welch's 8 kills.
With the victory, Azusa Pacific improves to 12-10 on the season, 5-8 in the GSAC. The Cougars have won 3 of their past 5 GSAC matches. Concordia falls to 15-12 overall, 5-9 in the GSAC.
