AZUSA, Calif. – The Cougars were able to shake off this morning's 2-3 loss with a dominant win over Ursuline College in straight sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-22) on Saturday night. Azusa Pacific moves to 2-2 this season with their latest win coming on the heels of two straight losses at home.
Once again, newcomer
Anya Green led the team with a .545 hitting percentage contributing six kills, two solo blocks, and two assisted blocks.
Delaney Tate, a former teammate with Green at UC Riverside, produced a team-high 14 kills to accumulate 52 kills over the season's first four games.
Makayla Chiechi had four service aces against the Arrows as well as a team-high eight digs.
How it Happened: In the first set, the Cougars established an early lead and, despite the Arrows leveling the score four times, Azusa Pacific never trailed. The turning point came midway through the set when
Amanda Albertini got a kill to kick off a 7-1 scoring run to take a commanding 22-14 lead.
The Arrows fought back, scoring four points on the Cougars' set point before
Brynja Martin delivered her first kill of the season to score the final point and secure the set.
In the second set, Ursuline jumped to an early lead but Azusa Pacific settled in and went on a 8-1 scoring run to earn an 11-6 advantage. Later in the set, Ursuline fought back once again to tue it 17-17 before the Cougars rattled off four straight points. Then, after a service error to send the ball back to the Arrows, Azusa Pacific got the ball right back and sealed the win with another four points in a row.
The Cougars capitalized on their momentum from the end of the previous set to score the first three points of the third as well. However, as they did in both sets prior, the Arrows crawled back to keep the score within one in the last stretch of the set.
However, remaining calm and composed, the Cougars scored three of the last four points, with
Katelyn Sonnier sealing the match win with a powerful strike set up by
Makayla Chiechi.
By the Numbers: Azusa Pacific led in every category, including kills, where they accumulated 39 compared to Usruline's 27 kills. The Cougars also put together a .236 hitting percentage, their best since the first match of the season. Meanwhile, the Arrows struggled on the offensive front, finishing with a .087 hitting percentage and 18 errors.
Up Next: After wrapping up their fourth game in just three days, the Cougars will take a week-long break before heading to San Marcos for three games starting on Friday. That day Azusa Pacific will play a doubleheader with the first game scheduled to start at 11 a.m. against Western Oregon and the following game to start at 6 p.m. against San Marcos. They will then begin PacWest play on Sept. 20th against new conference opponent Vanguard.
