Azusa Pacific fell in four sets (25-27, 25-20, 24-26, 21-25) to No. 22 Regis at the Seaside Invitational on Friday afternoon in San Diego.
Katarina Radisic had a game-high 21 kills, and Annaka Jorgenson contributed 17 kills as well. Maggie Nielsen tallied 24 assists, while Mina Andjelkovic finished with 20. Defensively, Delaney Dunham had six total blocks, including two solo, while Bailey Henington posted 21 digs and Jorgenson also notched 19 digs in the match.
In the opening frame, the Cougars took an early 13-7 lead. Regis would respond, scoring six unanswered points to knot things up at 13-13. The two sides would trade the next six points, and with the score at 16-16, the Rangers took their second lead of the set at 17-16. A few points later with the score at 18-17 Regis, the Cougars used two kills (Radisic & Jorgenson) and a Ranger service error to grab the lead back at 20-18. With the score at 23-21 in favor of the Cougars, the Rangers took the next three points for a 24-23 lead. Facing set point, Delaney Dunham delivered a kill to tie things at 24. Regis would close out the first set by scoring three of the next four points for a 27-25 win and a 1-0 match lead.
Regis led early in the second set, but the Cougars took an 8-7 lead and did not trail again. Azusa Pacific took leads as large as five on two occasions, and it spent much of the frame with leads between two and three points. After posting a hitting percentage of .214 (15-for-42) with six errors in the first set, Azusa Pacific executed much better in the second set, converting 15 of its 33 attempts (.394) with just two errors, which allowed the Cougars to tie the match at 1-1 with a 25-20 set win.
The third set was a back-and-forth affair, with 14 ties and the lead changing hands on six occasions, with just one instance in which a team had a lead greater than three points. Through the first 26 points of the third, the score remained within two points until the Rangers' Hannah Kepler had a kill to give her side a 15-12 lead. The Cougars would take the next three points, as kills by Hills and Jorgenson sandwiched a service ace by Maggie Nielsen to make it 15-15. Over the next few minutes of action, Regis went on a 7-3 run to take a late 22-18 lead. The Cougars would fight back, led by back-to-back kills from Radisic, a kill from Jorgenson, and a Ranger attack error that tied the score at 22-22. With the score tied at 24-24, Regis was able to take the next two straight points for a 26-24 set win and a 2-1 match lead.
While the Cougars would not make it easy, the Rangers closed out the match with a 25-21 fourth set victory. Azusa Pacific looked to be in a position in which it would force a fifth-set, as the Cougars held a 16-12 advantage. Regis cut into the lead, eventually capitalizing on a ball handling error by the Cougars to grab the 19-18 lead. The Rangers would go on to score the next two points as well, and Azusa Pacific was unable to cut the deficit down to anything smaller than two points for the remainder of the set.
By the Numbers: In the loss, the Cougars had a final hitting percentage of .227 (56-for-163/19 errors). Defensively, Azusa Pacific finished with seven blocks and 65 digs. Over the four sets there were a total of 13 lead changes and 33 ties.
Up Next: There is no time for the Cougars (0-2) to reflect on the afternoon loss, as Azusa Pacific is right back in action at 7:30 pm tonight against Cal State Los Angeles. The last time the Cougars played CSULA was back in the fall of 2019, where the two teams met in the quarterfinals of the NCAA DII West Regional, and the Cougars claimed a 3-0 sweep of the Golden Eagles. Five current Cougars (Henington, Radisic, Andjelkovic, Nielsen, Jorgenson) were members of the '19 squad, while the Golden Eagles have six members who played in the quarterfinal contest (Daisy Crenshaw, Jeshmarie Suarez, Victoria Duarte, Karla Santos, Shelby Grubbs, Alejandra Negron).
