Now holding a 10-2 record, the women's volleyball team continues dominant play. Courtesy of APU Sports Information.
On Thursday night, Azusa Pacific’s
women’s volleyball team showed the same dominance from its sweep against
Fresno Pacific the previous week, defeating the Holy Names Hawks for a third
straight sweep (25–20, 25–22 and 25–13) at the Felix Event Center.
The first set was a neck-and-neck battle, the deficit between the two teams not
growing any larger than three until the final two points from the Cougars that
ended the set at 25–20. Junior outside hitter Alicia Utke led the team with
five kills in the set.
The Cougars broke into the second set with a 5–1 lead and continued to build momentum.
They led the Hawks by as many as 11 points in the set with the score of 23–12
until Holy Names sparked a 10-1 run, bringing the set to 24–22. The Cougars’ service and attack errors were helping
the Hawks advance closer until sophomore outside hitter Joy Reinke snuffed any hopes
of finishing the comeback, ending the set with one of her three kills. She
recorded a team-high nine kills in the match.
The Cougars took the third set by
storm. They kept the lead around eight points for the length of the set and
finished the game with four unanswered points. The final kill that sealed the
deal came from senior middle blocker Lauren Edwards, who had eight kills in the
match and finished with a .538 hitting percentage.
Cougars head coach Chris Keife explained the team mindset that is key to
continue playing as a dominant force.
“We are trying to look at things with the mentality of one game at a time,”
Keife said.
The Cougars took this momentum into Saturday night’s home match versus Dominican and swept them for their fourth straight sweep (25–15, 25–21, 25–18). Eight of the ten Cougar victories have been sweeps.