AZUSA, Calif. – For the third time in its past 4 victories, the NAIA's No. 19-ranked Azusa Pacific needed all 5 games to post a GSAC victory, this time knocking off The Master's College, 27-30, 19-30, 30-26, 30-27, 15-11. And for the second time in 10 days, the Cougars did it in rather dramatic fashion, rallying from a 2-game deficit.
As significant as the Cougars' 5-game win was last week when they stormed back from 2 down to beat No. 10-ranked Biola, tonight's victory was just as notable since Azusa Pacific had come from behind without All-American Jenna Sagehorn
Sagehorn went down with a sprained ankle in the first game after leading the Cougars back to knot the score at 18-18
However, with Sagehorn out, The Master's regained control and held on for the 30-27 victory with Kathryn Kern, Erika Sansoni and Rosemary Franklin leading the way with 4 kills each.
In the second game, the Mustangs used a 10-2 run, taking advantage of 4 Cougar attack errors and a block error to jump out to 16-6 lead. Sansoni again paced the Mustang attack with 4 more kills. Through the 2 games, she had 8 kills in just 13 attempts.
It took a complete team effort for the Cougars to mount the comeback, paced by sophomores Christy Kimmell and T.J. Gause along with freshmen Adrienne Pepe and Maria Abaca, all who posted double-digits in kills.
"We were error prone in the first 2 games," said Cougar coach Greg Gregory. "Then momentum swung our way, and TMC didn't play as well in the third game as it had in the first 2 games. I figured for us to have a chance every one had to pick up their game. I thought T.J. came through big for us and so did Maria. Both were forced to play in places that they hadn't been in awhile because of Jenna's injury."
In a see-saw fifth game, Abaca and Pepe came up big with a key block on a Kern attempt that gave the Cougars an insurmountable 11-8 lead.
Kimmell finished with 12 kills while Pepe, Gause and Abaca had 10 each. Sansoni led The Master's a match-high 18 kills. The Mustangs mounted a fine 26% attack clip in the first 2 games, but dropped off to a mere 4% pace over the final 3 games.
With the victory, Azusa Pacific improves to 17-6 overall, 9-5 in the GSAC. The Master's falls to 10-11overall, 7-7.
