FULLERTON, Calif. -- Sophomore middle blocker Amy Alkazin helped the NAIA's No. 5-ranked Azusa Pacific get its busiest week of Golden State Athletic Conference play off to a successful start, tallying 14 kills and 9 blocks in the Cougars' 25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 25-19 win at Hope International Tuesday night.

Alkazin was 1 kill short of her career-high (15), and she tied her career-high in blocks just 3 days after she set her personal blocking best in Saturday's 5-set win at The Master's.

The match was the fourth straight road contest for the Cougars, who came out of the grueling 2-week stretch with 3 wins in 4 matches. Up next are back-to-back contests at home against NAIA Top 10 programs, beginning with Wednesday's 7 p.m. matchup with No. 10-ranked Biola. Azusa Pacific hosts No. 4 Concordia in Saturday's regular-season finale.

Senior outside hitter Jill Baker picked up 18 of her match-high 19 kills in the first 3 sets of the 4-set victory, and she was 1 of 7 Cougars with at least 10 attack attempts. Alkazin put away 14 of her 23 attempts for kills without a single error for a match attack percentage of .609, and sophomore outside hitter Marguerite Hanna joined Baker and Alkazin in double figures with 11 kills while serving a match-high 3 aces.

Azusa Pacific registered 20 kills in the opening set alone, using a pair of Alkazin kills to reel off 4 straight points that broke a 16-16 tie. Baker finished off the 25-23 win with 1 of her 8 kills in the set, and she tallied 5 more in a 25-19 second-set defeat that evened the match.

The Cougars never trailed over the final 2 sets, jumping out to identical 20-8 leads in both the third and fourth sets. Hanna and Baker tallied 5 kills apiece in the third set, a 25-18 win, and Alkazin and sophomore right side hitter Whittany Radcliffe led the Cougars' balanced effort in the 25-19 fourth set with 3 kills each. Radcliffe finished with 6 kills and 6 blocks.

With the victory, Azusa Pacific improves to 22-8 overall, 13-5 GSAC, while Hope International drops to 7-24 overall, 3-16 GSAC.