THE AGENDA
The OUAZ men's volleyball team will play at home for the first time in 2019 on Wednesday night when they welcome crosstown rival Arizona Christian for a non-conference match at Willow Canyon High School that starts at 7 p.m.
 
Admission to OUAZ men's volleyball home matches are free all season and fans are encouraged to park on the south side of the gymnasium and enter the building through the west doors.
 
OUAZ will broadcast Wednesday's game live on the NAIA Network and through the Spirit Game Central portal. The NAIA Network is available on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku devices by searching NAIA. Live stats will also be available during the match. Links for all live coverage is available at OUAZSpirit.com/live.
 
ABOUT THE SPIRIT
OUAZ opened the second season in program history on Saturday across the valley at Grand Canyon. The Spirit dropped the match to the NCAA Division I nationally ranked foe in three sets to fall to 0-1 on the season.
 
In the opener, OUAZ hit .045 as a team with 29 kills and 25 hitting errors. They recorded one service ace and totaled 30 digs and five blocks. They held GCU to 27 kills with the Lopes hitting .167 with six aces and 9.5 blocks.
 
Chris Nero led OUAZ with seven kills in the season opener. He hit .045 on 22 attack attempts with four digs. Bryan Ilena added five kills on .308 hitting while recording a team-high five blocks. James Yahner, Brandon Davis, and Jacob Vander Beek all finished with four kills.
 
Andrew de'Leon led the team with 23 assists and Joaquin Santa Cruz had a team-high 10 digs.
 
ABOUT ARIZONA CHRISTIAN
Arizona Christian will be playing the first match in program history on Wednesday. Micah Briscoe is the head coach of the Firestorm team that features seven freshmen among the 10-man roster.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
OUAZ will head to Palos Heights, Illinois next week as the No. 1 seed at the NCCAA Men's Volleyball National Invitational. The Spirit will play three matches of pool play with a bracket play match based on final results of pool play to determine final placing. The first match is against Brewton-Parker on January 25 at 1 p.m. MST.