THE AGENDA
The OUAZ men's volleyball team will compete at the NCCAA Men's Volleyball National Invitational this weekend where they enter the 8-team tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Spirit will play four matches at the event that is being played at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill. Two pool play matches are scheduled for January 25 with the final pool play match and the bracket crossover match on January 26.
 
OUAZ opens the event at 1 p.m. MST on Friday against No. 8-seed Brewton-Parker College. The Spirit will then face No. 5-seed Judson University at 5 p.m. MST to close day one. Pool play ends against No. 4-seed Greenville University on Saturday at 8 a.m. MST. The winners of the two pool will play for the title at 2 p.m. MST on Saturday with the other three crossover matches being held on Saturday afternoon as well.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
Every match of the Invitational will be streamed live on the NCCAA Network for $8.95. Live stats will also be available during each match. The NCCAA Network is available on both your desktop and mobile/tablet devices at www.thenccaa.org/network, as well as over-the-top (OTT) platforms, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV. In addition, the NCCAA Network is available on the NCCAA App for iOS in the App Store and Android on Google Play. Mobile devices including iPhone, iPad, and Android will work with the default web browser.
 
ABOUT THE SPIRIT
OUAZ enters the weekend with a 1-1 overall record this season after recording a 3-0 sweep of Arizona Christian last week. That came after the Spirit lost in three sets at NCAA Division I foe Grand Canyon on January 12.
 
The Spirit will be making their first-ever appearance at the NCCAA National Invitational. The event hasn't been played since 2005.
 
On the season, OUAZ is averaging 9.7 kills per set while hitting .147 through the first two matches. They are adding 2.3 service aces per set. The opposition is hitting .041 while posting 5.5 kills per set. The Spirit average 8.7 digs and 1.3 blocks per set.
 
James Yahner leads the Spirit this season with 13 kills after posting a match-high nine against ACU. He is hitting .062 thus far while leading the team with four service aces and placing second with 12 digs.
 
Bryan Ilena is hitting .417 with nine kills and a team-best even blocks. Jacob Vander Beek had eight kills and a pair of aces. Andrew de'Leon leads the way with 30 assists and Joaquin Santa Cruz has a team leading 17 digs.
 
AGAINST THE FIELD
Of the other seven teams in the field, OUAZ has only faced Campbellsville and Judson in their program's short history. The Spirit defeated Campbellsville – this week's No. 2 seed – in four sets last March and they swept Judson that same weekend.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
After returning from the Chicago area, the Spirit will jump into Golden State Athletic Conference play on when they host Hope International on February 1 at Willow Canyon High School. The teams will also play on February 2 in a non-conference match.