IRVINE, Calif. -- The NAIA’s No. 7-ranked Azusa Pacific ran into No. 3 Concordia on the wrong night for an upset bid, suffering a 3-set sweep to the Eagles, 25-22, 25-16, 26-24, despite an otherwise impressive performance of its own.

The Cougars converted for a better attack percentage in the first and third sets, and Azusa Pacific had 3 players reach double figures in kills while Concordia’s offensive leader finished with 9 kills. However, a Concordia team that lost in 4 sets at California Baptist earlier in the week returned home for a nearly-flawless effort that dropped the Cougars into a 3-way tie for third place in the Golden State Athletic Conference at the midway point of the conference schedule.

Senior outside hitter Jill Baker led all attackers with 11 kills, and she was joined in double figures by sophomores Marguerite Hanna and Amy Alkazin, who recorded 10 kills each. Concordia was led by Stephanie Darnall’s 9-kill performance.

Azusa Pacific never trailed the opening set by more than 3 points, and the Cougars led twice midway through the set at 14-13 and 15-14. However, Concordia’s Brooke Marino followed her own kill with a block assist for the 2-point swing, and that was all the momentum the Eagles needed.

After 1 more tie score at 16-all, Concordia took the lead for good on a service error, and Marino finished things off with another of her 8 kills in the match for the 25-22 opening-set win. The Cougars committed only 3 attack errors in the set, recording 14 kills for a .293 attack percentage, but Concordia virtually matched Azusa Pacific’s offensive precision with a 15-kill, 4-error attack in the first set.

Concordia stuffed 6 Azusa Pacific attacks in a 25-16 second set. Another Marino kill sparked a 3-point burst that resulted in a 15-8 Eagles lead, and Concordia led the rest of the way by at least 5 points to take a 2-set lead in the match.

The Cougars led by as many as 5 points on 4 separate occasions in the third set, the last time at 15-10 on a Baker kill, but Concordia reeled off 4 straight in response to trim the lead to 15-14. From that point on, neither team led by more than 2 points in a back-and-forth 26-24 set.

Other match leaders included sophomore libero Robin Portela (17 digs) and junior defensive specialist Julia Wehsener (2 aces).

With the loss, Azusa Pacific drops to 16-6 overall, 7-3 GSAC, while Concordia returns to the GSAC’s top 3 at 20-3 overall, 7-3 GSAC. The Cougars kick off the second half of the 20-match conference slate when they host Westmont at 7 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 13). After that, 6 of Azusa Pacific’s 9 remaining regular-season matches will be on the road.

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