AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific displayed flashes of the young talent it hopes can take it above and beyond last season's finish, but the stretches in between doomed the NAIA's No. 10-ranked Cougars to a 25-18, 25-16, 25-22 loss to No. 3 California Baptist in Thursday's Golden State Athletic Conference opener.

Although Azusa Pacific put together an efficient offense, hitting for a .264 percentage with just 11 attack errors, the Cougars conceded 10 points on service errors and another 5 points on blocking and ball-handling errors. The 15-point swing from those errors alone was too much of a hole for Azusa Pacific to overcome against the 2-time NAIA champion Lancers.

Senior outside hitter Jill Baker registered a match-high 15 kills, converting 11 straight without an error over the final 2 sets, and sophomore outside hitter Marguerite Hanna added 11 kills for the Cougars. California Baptist, however, had 4 hitters reach double figures in kills, led by Fei Shi's 12-kill, 2-error effort. Ingrid Carmona added 11 kills, again with just 2 errors,and Noelle Dyk and Jessica Ewoldt posted identical 10-kill, 1-error performances for the Lancers, who converted for a red-hot .398 attack percentage.

The Cougars held leads in all 3 sets, jumping out to a 5-3 advantage in the opening set on the strength of 3 Hanna kills. However, California Baptist weathered the opening flurry and responded with 6 of the next 7 points, and the Lancers never trailed again in the opening set. Trailing by a 19-14 margin, Azusa Pacific reeled off 4 straight to come within a point of tying the set at 19-18, but 3 straight Lancer kills sparked a 6-point run that closed out the opening set, 25-18.

Midway through the second set, Hanna tallied 3 more kills to help swing a 7-6 deficit into a 13-11 Cougar advantage. California Baptist took control again with 5 straight points, part of a dominant 14-3 set-ending run for the 25-16 win. The third set saw Azusa Pacific take its largest lead of the match at 13-7, and the Cougars led by as many as 5 points at 17-12 late in the set, but the Lancers needed just 9 points to draw even at 19-19. After a Baker kill tied the set at 22-22, Shi answered with a kill for the first of 3 straight points to close out the match for California Baptist, which extended its season-opening win streak to 12 matches.

Freshman setter Sophie Burns served a pair of aces to go with 12 assists, and sophomore libero Robin Portela was Azusa Pacific's digs leader with 11. Shi was California Baptist's serving leader with 2 aces, and she also came up with a match-high 15 digs to anchor the Lancer defense.

With the defeat, Azusa Pacific drops to 9-4 overall, 0-1 GSAC, and the Cougars have lost 10 of the last 11 meetings with California Baptist, which improves to 12-0 overall, 2-0 GSAC. Azusa Pacific continues conference play Saturday, Sept. 12, with a 7 p.m. visit to No. 24-ranked Westmont.

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