Azusa Pacific’s women’s volleyball team got off to a quick start in its opening home match Friday night and never looked back. The Cougars took on PacWest rival Holy Names University and swept 3-0.
In the first set, Azusa Pacific quickly defeated the Hawks 25-14. APU averaged .324 in offensive attacks, whereas the Hawks struggled with a -.057 percentage in that set. Azusa Pacific also had nearly twice as many kills as the Hawks, putting up 15 kills while the Hawks had eight.
The Cougars came back strong in the second set, defeating the Hawks 25-18, but struggled with some technical mistakes.
“We made some poor decisions and served the ball out of bounds too much; we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be out there,” said head coach Chris Keife.
The Cougars served the ball out of bounds several times in the second set as well as had two penalties for crossing the back line during serves. Azusa Pacific cleaned up those mistakes, however, and cruised by Holy Names in the third set 25-9 to sweep the Hawks.
The Cougars benefited greatly from offensive production, mostly stemming from Katy Crouse, Mattie Shelford and Crystal Dedes, who put up 22 of the Cougars’ 37 kills of the night. The Cougars finished the night with an impressive .315 attack percentage, and the Hawks failed to create offensive production, finishing with a -.110 attack percentage.
“I think I personally just went out with the mentality that we are all going to work as a team and swing hard at every ball that I can and get it down,” said junior outside hitter Crouse, who posted a team-high of 11 kills throughout the match.
Azusa Pacific will continue its PacWest play against Fresno Pacific University Saturday at 3 p.m.