FRESNO, Calif – All-American Jill Baker, the lone senior on the NAIA's No. 5-ranked Azusa Pacific volleyball squad, is keenly aware of the frustration felt by every Cougar senior who has gone before her over the past 11 years. Not one of them in all their time at Azusa Pacific beat NAIA power Fresno Pacific. Not once in each senior's respective 4 years.

Baker, however, is not a typical Cougar senior. She isn't like those who have gone before her. She, in fact, is an elite player, one of the greatest school history. Yet even Baker could not stem the steady march history. Even Baker, as close as she came tonight, is likely to leave Azusa Pacific as the 12th class of 4-year seniors who never beat Fresno Pacific – though she did tease history for a moment tonight.

Defending NAIA champion and top-ranked Fresno Pacific recovered from a first-set stumble by taking the next 3 sets, including a pair of nail-biters, to hold off Azusa Pacific for a key Golden State Athletic Conference victory Tuesday night in the Special Events Center in Fresno. The Sunbirds beat Azusa Pacific for the 38th consecutive time, 22-25, 28-26, 25-14, 25-23.

Baker, a 3-time All-American and Azusa Pacific's all-time kills leader, was the focal point of a persistent Sunbird defense which was determined not to let Baker beat them and in the process thwarted 25 of her 36 attack attempts on the night.

The Cougars, who have been playing their best volleyball of the season over the past 2 weeks, continued the hot play with an impressive first-set performance in which they converted 15-of-29 attack attempts against just 1 error for an amazing .483 hitting clip. Azusa Pacific fashioned an early 7-1 run to assume a 10-6 lead following a Marguerite Hanna kill and never looked back the rest of the set. They held off every Sunbird charge retake control of the set, but a Whittany Radcliffe-Amy Alkazin combined block ended the Sunbirds' best chance to knot the score midway through the set, and Fresno Pacific never got closer than 2 points the of the way.

Four consecutive Sunbird attack errors following a Baker kill gave Azusa Pacific a 6-3 lead early in the second set, giving hope that this might be the night that Azusa Pacific would beat Fresno Pacific for the first time since 1994. However, behind the play of Keke Wang and a defense that stifled Baker, Fresno Pacific rallied and assumed the lead at 15-14. The Sunbirds would never trail again in the set, though Azusa Pacific did tie the score at 23, 24, 25, and 26 before back-to-back Wang kills gave the Sunbirds a match-swinging set victory.

Fresno Pacific rolled in the third set, taking advantage of perhaps an emotionally drained set of Cougars, who committed 9 attack errors in the set while producing just 4 kills in 34 attempts. The Sunbirds used a 9-2 run to assume a 21-11 cushion and cruised to a 2-sets-to-1 advantage in the match.

Azusa Pacific regrouped in the fourth set with some stingy defense, registering 14 digs and a pair of blocks while holding Fresno Pacific, the GSAC's top hitting team, to just a .188 hitting clip. Yet, as was the case in the second set, the Cougars could not get over the hump, rallying from 7 down to pull to within 1 at 24-23 , before a Michelle Jones kill, 1 of her 15 on the night, ended the match and all hopes of Baker picking up her first-ever victory over Fresno Pacific.

The 2 teams will not likely meet again this season unless at the NAIA Championship Tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the first week of December.

Baker finished with a team-high 11 kills, but following Azusa Pacific's 6-3 led in the second set, she was limited to just 6 kills and a paltry .074 hitting percentage the rest of the match. Hanna, Alkazin and Radcliffe each tallied 7 kills of their own.

With the loss, Azusa Pacific falls to 20-8 overall, 11-5 in the GSAC. Fresno Pacific is now 28-0 overall (17-0 in the GSAC) and pushes its winning streak to 31 straight dating back to last year.

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