SURPRISE, ARIZ. – The OUAZ women's volleyball team returned to the court for the first time in two weeks to take on new GSAC member Embry-Riddle on Friday night. After falling behind 2-0, the Spirit battled back to reverse sweep in an evening that featured 107 kills, 180 digs, 21 blocks, and 15 services aces between the two teams.
The Spirit jumped out to an 11-8 lead in the first set, then gave up six consecutive points to relinquish an advantage they would never get back. After erasing a seven-point deficit, OUAZ even took the lead at 21-20, but the Eagles took five of the final six points and pushed the match closer to the conclusion.
Never once did the Spirit back down the remainder of the night, even holding off a 5-0 run from ERAU to clinch the third set. After pulling away in the fourth set to tie the contest, the Spirit went on a 4-0 run in the middle of the final frame and closed out the match with a 15-10 decision.
"We always tell the team it takes three sets to win a match," OUAZ Head Coach Olivia Afusia said. "We were playing good volleyball early, we just needed to minimize errors and add some different energy to the court."
The Spirit had a pair of double-double players on Friday, as Kaitlin Brown and Keira Adrian each reached the plateau with their kills and digs totals. Brown had a game-high 18 kills to go with 15 digs, and Adrian had 10 in each category.
"We needed something to click in our heads," Brown said. "We weren't playing bad volleyball, but we weren't playing our best volleyball. We needed that wake-up call and we got it."
Jessica Pearce also put on an outstanding performance, finishing with 10 kills and six block assists. Defensively, Amey Rainaud had a team-leading 26 digs, plus Reegan Shoquist added 14 on the evening.
The Spirit had 52 assists, led by Kaiden Raif's 26. Logan Kuehn had 19 assists, and also added four kills to the OUAZ attack.
Eight days away from game action await the Spirit, but they will resume GSAC play against another new conference member on Saturday, Sept. 21. OUAZ will travel to the East Valley to take on Park-Gilbert, with first serve scheduled for 2 p.m.
