Women’s volleyball defeats Notre Dame de Namur in straight sets with little trouble
The Azusa Pacific Cougars defeated Notre Dame de Namur on Friday. Coming into the game, the Cougars had a record of 16-4 and were looking to start fast, as they just came off only their fourth loss of the season to Hawaii Hilo in a hard-fought 2-3 match.
In the first set, the Cougars came out firing against the Argonauts as they took a fast lead due to the efforts of freshman Annaka Jorgenson who had three service aces and five kills. The reigning PacWest player of the week, senior Julianne Miller, also helped the Cougars in the dominant 25-11 first set win with three kills of her own.
During the second set, the Cougars fell to a 2-7 deficit but were able to fight back on a scoring streak to retake the lead at 10-9. The rally came primarily from kills from Jorgenson and junior Amy Hinnant in this set. Notre Dame de Namur kept the set interesting by keeping the score close off of Samantha Shaffer’s five kills. However, the Cougars battled through and won the second set off of senior Sara Wagenveld’s kill to win the set at 25-18. Wagenveld totaled eight kills through two sets.
At the start of the third set, the Cougars were looking to take the match with a 3-0 set victory. Notre Dame de Namur was not going to let it be easy for APU as early on in the set the score was locked at 3-3. The Cougars showed their dominance by pulling away with a 10-5 and continued to extend it at 17-10 Attack errors started to pile up from the Argonauts with a total of 10 and a hitting percentage of just .158.
The Cougars again pushed their lead to the game point 24-17, but Notre Dame de Namur fought back to make the score 24-20. They could not hold on, as Jorgenson sealed the victory with her tenth kill and fourteenth point of the match.
The Cougars’ three-set dominance was marked with team stats of 44 kills, 12 service aces, and a hitting percentage of .293. Notable play came from Wagenveld with 12 kills and a hitting percentage of .524, as well as Jorgenson with 14 points.
The Cougars will face off against Dominican on Monday in the Felix Event Center, as they look to extend their 17-4 record.