NAMPA, Idaho – Azusa Pacific started its 2022 campaign with a dominant straight-set sweep (25-20, 25-19, 25-16) of Rollins on Thursday morning, as the Cougars are playing four matches over two days at the Northwest Nazarene Invitational.
Kyra Palmbush opened her season in impressive fashion, tallying 10 kills on just 15 attempts (.667 hitting percentage), while adding four block assists defensively. Alongside Palmbush in the attack, Annaka Jorgenson notched nine kills and Katarina Radisic added seven kills. Aubrea Banfield made her Azusa Pacific debut, and she delivered seven service aces and dished out 13 assists.
How It Happened: Azusa Pacific opened the contest by taking the first four points of the first set, and it never trailed in the opening frame. The Cougars' largest leading margin was six, which was held twice (23-17, 24-18).
Holding an 11-8 lead in the second set, the Cougars would win the next eight points, highlighted by three of Banfield's service aces, to push the lead up to 19-8. While Rollins would trim the deficit down slightly, Azusa Pacific maintained an advantage of five points or more throughout the second frame.
The Cougars would put the match away in the third set with two runs of five or more points. Despite falling behind by a 6-9 tally, Azusa Pacific would respond with six unanswered points to flip the score into a 12-9 lead. Up 20-16, the Cougars sealed the victory by scoring the final five points for the 25-16 set win.
By The Numbers: As a team, the Cougars tallied 34 kills on 72 attempts (.333 hitting percentage), compared to just a .135 hitting percentage for Rollins. Azusa Pacific went the entire match without committing a setting error, blocking error, or ball-handling error.
Up Next: This afternoon, Azusa Pacific (1-0) will play its second match of the day when it takes on Texas A&M International. It will be the second time in which the two programs have met, as the Cougars beat the Dust Devils by a 3-1 score in 2013. The match is scheduled to start at 4:30 pm Mountain time (3:30 pm Pacific time). The game can be watched here, and live stats can be followed through this link.
