WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. – After suffering 2 defeats to highly- ranked teams on the first day of pool play at the NAIA Volleyball National Championships, the NAIA's No. 19-ranked Azusa Pacific
picked up its first win of the tournament Thursday afternoon in West Palm Beach, Fla., defeating Houghton College (N.Y.) in 4 games, 15-10, 15-1, 1-15, 15-9.
 
"It feels good that we won, and I think it validates that we deserve to be in the tournament," said Cougar head coach Gerry Gregory. "We didn't play a particularly good match, but we played well
enough to win and that is encouraging. We are just going to take this by baby steps and hope that tomorrow we will be able to play a great match."

The Cougars were led by GSAC co-freshman of the year Jenna Sagehorn, who tallied team-highs of 15 kills and 20 digs, as well as 4 blocks.
 
"My shoulder hurts when I hit, but it's not so bad that I can't play, so I am just going to push through," said Sagehorn. "We are treasuring this win, even though I think some of our games yesterday validated us, even though we lost."
 
Houghton jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first game, but the Cougars answered with 4 straight and eventually warmed up to reel off 9 of the games final 11 points for a 15-10 Game 1 win. Sagehorn tallied 4 kills in the first game, one of which gave Azusa Pacific its first lead at 9-8. Sagehorn also set up the win with consecutive kills that put the Cougar lead at 14-10. Roxanna
Mercer tallied 4 kills in the first game, as well.
 
Four service aces were part of a 14-0 flurry to start the second game, and Sagehorn finished off the Highlanders with a kill that gave the Cougars a 15-1 Game 2 win. Sagehorn did not commit
an attack error in the first 2 games, and Mercer served 8 straight points during the 14-point run.
 
"We were a lot more alert in the second game than they were," said Gregory. "We had some good serves, and some good transition attacks. To be honest, I thought they just had a bad game."
 
The match took a brief turn for the worse in the third game when Houghton returned Azusa Pacific's Game 2 favor with a 15-1 win, drawing within a game at 2 games to 1.
 
"Being the nice people that we are, we thought we would do the exact same thing for them the next game and not play up to our abilities," said Gregory.
 
The Cougars tallied just 4 kills as a team in Game 3 and scored their only point on one of Lydia Ayala's team-high 5 blocks, with an assist from Tishanna Pope.
 
"When our passing breaks down, so does our offense," said Sagehorn. "You can't attack when you can't even set up your plays."
 
T.J. Gause opened the fourth game with an ace, and Sagehorn immediately got involved again, tallying yet another kill to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead. Houghton fought back to an 8-7 advantage, but Azusa Pacific sustained another run, this time for 7 points, staking the Cougars to a 14-8 advantage before finally winning Game 4, 15-9. During the run, Mahea Burgess tallied one of her 2 aces, giving the Cougars a 10-8 lead, and Sagehorn and Ayala combined for a block that took the lead to 11-8.
 
With the win, the Cougars are now 1-2 in pool play, and 25-11 overall. Azusa Pacific takes on host Palm Beach Atlantic Friday morning at 6 a.m. in the final match of pool play. With a win, the
Cougars still have an outside shot at making Friday evening's quarterfinals.