LAIE, Hawaii – Coming into Saturday's contest at BYU-Hawaii, the Cougars hadn't won a set at the George Q. Cannon Activities Center.
That storyline not only changed, it was completely destroyed as Azusa Pacific handled BYU-Hawaii 3-0 (25-15, 25-9, 25-20).
The win is the third all-time against the tradition NCAA Division II power. The Cougars won both matches in the season series without dropping a set. The victory also keeps Azusa Pacific in contention for the PacWest's top spot as they up their league record to 8-4 while improving their overall mark to 12-9. The Cougars have won five of six overall and five straight against conference foes.
"We have been working on a lot of the details of being mentally focused, playing one point at a time and playing for each other. The past few matches we have been doing a nice job of taking the things we have been learning and bringing it on the court," head coach Chris Keife said. "We had good ball control and today we did that which frustrates team. We put a lot of pressure on them to earn points. In turn that helped us get a lot of easy points."
A well distributed offense was paced by Mattie Shelford's nine kills. Joy Reinke and Crystal Dedes tallied seven kills each. In addition to her strong kill numbers Dedes posted a .357 hitting mark as did Ashley Midland who had five kills.
Alyssa Tavera pieced together her second straight double-double with a 20-assist, 11-dig afternoon. Ashley Swatek held down the defensive back line with a 20-dig effort. Up front Dedes led a good blocking performance with six block assists as the Cougars held an 8-3 edge in total blocks.
"The big part of our defense is our serve. We served well which in turn that helped us get quality defensive touches. It was all clicking and the girls were doing their roles well," Keife said.
The Cougars grabbed the first stanza thanks in large part to a 5-0 run just before the sets midway point. Tied at 10-10 Azusa Pacific scored five unanswered points and never looked back in roaring to the 25-15 victory. BYU-Hawaii was something of their own worst enemy as they gave the Cougars 13 free points after 11 attack and two service errors. Credit also belongs to the Cougars who had four team blocks while Ashley Swatek's seven opening frame digs kept her team in numerous points.
Azusa Pacific continued to pressure the defending conference champions in the second set as they raced out to an 8-1 lead. They increased that edge to 14-4 and despite a handful of strategies to slow the pace of the match down a determined Cougars squad would not be unraveled. During the dominating win, the Cougars hit an incredible .423 as a team. Conversely the Seasiders had more errors (7) then kills (6) as they were a negative hitting team (-.027) for the set.
BYU-Hawaii took their first lead since early in the first set during the beginning moments of the third frame but a feisty Cougars squad would have nothing to do with a Seasider victory. The home squad got their deficit down to one point at 16-15 which caused the Cougars to use a timeout. The Cougars continued to press forward as they went ahead 24-17. A Mattie Shelford kill completed the win.
After a six-day break the Cougars return to the court with a home match against Dixie State on Friday evening.
