AZUSA, Calif. -- Five points.

It took 15 days and 199 points for Azusa Pacific and Biola to battle to a 10-10 tie in the fifth set Wednesday evening at the Felix Event Center, but it seemingly took a mere instant for the right arm of senior outside hitter Jill Baker to finish off the Cougars’ wild 5-set win with 4 straight kills in a match-ending 5-point run.

Baker, who owns Azusa Pacific’s career, season and single-match kills records, reached the 500-kill milestone for the fourth straight season during the match-ending run, part of her 23-kill, 18-dig, 7-block effort that carried the Cougars to a perfect 5-for-5 in 5-set matches this season. It was her fifth 20-kill effort this season, and she was just 1 block shy of matching her career-high (8). Baker recorded 8 of her 23 kills in the final set, accounting for over half of her team’s points in the shortened fifth set.

“When we got to that point, we just wanted to get a good, solid serve to set up our defense,” Baker said. “We just wanted to stick to our game plan – pass, set, and hit. We have been working really hard on details, just those little things that can help you get those extra points in vital situations, and I think our success really stems from that.”

The final set featured 9 ties and 5 lead changes, with neither team leading by more than 2 points prior to the 10-10 deadlock. After falling behind, 2-1, Baker scored the next 4 Cougar points for a 5-4 lead, but 3 Biola blocks helped the Eagles rally to their final lead of the match at 10-9. A service error tied the match at 10-10, and an attack into the net started Azusa Pacific’s closing run.

“We made some plays, we got some digs, and we just gave Jill the ball,” Cougar head coach Chris Keife said. “When the game’s on the line, I want it in 21’s (Baker’s) hands.”

With the 25-19, 21-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-10 win, the NAIA’s No. 5-ranked Azusa Pacific improves to 23-8 overall, 14-5 in Golden State Athletic Conference play with the season sweep of No. 10-ranked Biola. Tonight’s match was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 27, when a power outage that affected the Azusa Pacific campus knocked out the Felix Event Center lights during pre-match warm-ups. The power outage lasted nearly 2 hours, forcing the postponement of the match until the final week of the regular season. The Cougars wore special pink jerseys to raise support and awareness for the Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Rally.

Sophomore middle blocker Ariel Beetstra posted the rare kills-and-blocks double-double with career-highs of 10 kills and 10 blocks, while sophomore right side hitter Whittany Radcliffe added 18 kills and a pair of blocks.

“We’ve definitely been focusing more in practice on keeping our block low and solid instead of reaching for the ball,” Beetstra said. “You can get caught up in the excitement of a match and start reaching as high as you can for a block, but that’s not the best technique.”

The Cougars’ 14-block team total was their third straight match with double-digit blocks. Sophomores Amy Alkazin and Krista Brenner joined in with 4 blocks each.

“Blocking is one of the hardest skills to execute time and time again,” Keife said. “A lot of things can go wrong in blocking – sometimes you can do the skill 10 times and only block one. Sometimes frustration sets in, but we’ve been working on staying patient and focusing on the proper execution of our block.”

The Cougars used a 14-5 run in the opening set to turn an early 5-4 deficit into a commanding 18-10 margin and cruised to a 25-19 win. Radcliffe had 5 kills in 7 attempts, and Brenner added 4 kills in 8 attempts in the opening-set victory.

Biola scored the first 3 points and never trailed in the second set, picking up the first of back-to-back 25-21 set victories to take a 2 sets-to-1 lead in the match. Eagles freshman Nicolette Mather recorded 5 kills in each set for 10 of her team-high 14 kills in the match.

The Cougars bounced back in the fourth set, expanding a 5-4 lead into a 14-6 advantage with a 9-2 run that included 3 blocks and back-to-back Marguerite Hanna kills. Hanna finished with 9 kills, including 4 in the fourth set. Biola trimmed the lead down to 3 point at 18-15, but Baker answered with a kill and a block as Azusa Pacific scored 7 of the final 10 points in the set for the 25-18 win that set up the decisive fifth set.

Tavea Hampton was Biola’s only player besides Mather to reach double figures in kills, tallying 10 kills to go with a team-high 9 blocks. Justin Schoneveld and Kelsey Christoferson added 6 blocks apiece for the Eagles. Senior libero Katie Stevens recorded her 2,000th career dig in the opening set and finished with a match-high 26 digs for Biola, which drops to 21-9 overall, 12-7 GSAC.

Azusa Pacific has clinched an at-large berth into the 36-team field of the NAIA Volleyball National Championship. As 1 of the top 12 teams in this week’s final NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll, the Cougars will skip the opening round and go straight to the final site for pool play in the Dec. 1-5 NAIA Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa.

The Cougars wrap up the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 14, when they host the NAIA’s No. 4-ranked Concordia in a 7:30 p.m. matchup.

Follow Cougar Athletics online with Twitter updates, at twitter.com/APUCougars. Cougar Athletics is also available on all web-enabled devices through Azusa Pacific’s mobile website: www.apu.edu/m.