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OUAZ Athletics

MVB_02/27/2025
MVB_03/25
2
OUAZ OUAZ 5-5, 1-1
3
Winner Hope International HIU 10-4, 4-1
OUAZ OUAZ
5-5, 1-1
2
Final
3
Hope International HIU
10-4, 4-1
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
OUAZ OUAZ 23 25 16 25 16 (2)
Hope International HIU 25 23 25 20 18 (3)
1
OUAZ OUAZ 5-6, 1-2
3
Winner The Master's THE MAST 14-0, 4-0
OUAZ OUAZ
5-6, 1-2
1
Final
3
The Master's THE MAST
14-0, 4-0
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
OUAZ OUAZ 25 17 18 13 (1)
The Master's THE MAST 23 25 25 25 (3)

Game Recap: Men's Volleyball | | Jas Singh

OUAZ Gets Stunned Late by #14 Hope International and Loses on the Road vs #1 Masters

Fullerton, Calif . & Santa Clarita, Calif - After putting themselves in the right spot in almost every set, OUAZ falls short (23-25) (25-23) (16-25) (25-20) (16-18) to start off its GSAC road trip against Hope International. After a week that saw the Spirit go (3-0) defeating a top 5 ranked and a huge conference rival, the Spirit lost a heartbreaker to an outside heavy Royals team. OUAZ then faced arguably the toughest matchup all year and came up short against Masters University (25-23) (25-18) (25-17) (25-13). The Spirit competed against a Mustang team, who has defeated several division one programs this season including a top 10 ranked Stanford University. The two losses put the Spirit at (5-6) overall and (1-2) in GSAC play.

Starting with the contest against Hope, Nevada native Horatio Maumasi led all hitters with 13 kills hitting a team high .458. Maumasi, who did not get much volume in set 1 became a clear x-factor for the rest of the game. Defensively, he added 5 top notch block assists on heavy back row hitting for the Royals. Freshman Jack Hubbard, who constantly takes over games offensively was strong on both ends tonight. Hubbard, with 10 kills added a team high 15 digs and was quite unstoppable in sets 1 and 3. The outside hitter read the block perfectly and filled in the right holes leading to constant Spirit opportunities off of quality digs from him. Corey Johnson, filled up the stat sheet tonight with 11 kills and 2 block assists. However, Johnson's impact was extremely felt in set 3 where he flipped a switch and took over getting some serious highlight level stuff blocks. Johnson's fellow senior Caeden Salmen, had the same story, absolutely housing some Royal back row attacks and also tallying 12 kills with only one error.

OUAZ came into Friday night's contest on a tear starting set one up 17-12 off of some great Jack Hubbard defense. However, the Royals simply would not go away and cut the lead to within three at 23-20. Hope, following a miss serve, erupted scoring the last 5 points and ending the set on a service ace. Set 2 was a battle of sideouts, as neither team had a lead of more than 2 until game point. Jack Hubbard likely delivered his best play of the day with a nice line shot service ace that ended the set at 25-23. Set 3 was an unfortunate offensive barrage from Hope International from the back row led by their star outside hitter Cole Oliver. The Royals led by as much as 8 and did not look back. Down 2-1, something completely mentally completely flipped for this OUAZ team as set 4 was won a large part due to the amazing defensive adjustments. After lingering emotions from a tough set 3 loss, the Spirit saw themselves in an early 3-7 deficit. But, immediately stormed back and pushed the lead to 9-12. Coach Afusia and Coach Gardenhire pushed for a larger effort at consistent blocking leading to big sets from Caeden Salmen and Corey Johnson. Johnson started the blocking, then Salmen followed putting together a 5-0 run that put the Spirit ahead 14-12. Following a Hope timeout, OUAZ completely took over. Corey Johnson, pushed a huge stuff block on the pin on Julian Zavala that put some life into the team and the bench, while extending the lead to 19-13. The Royals again crept back but fell short following a great offensive set from Caeden Salmen who put up an impressive cross body shot kill and block to end the set. Set 5 saw the Spirit start out on a tear continuing their last set momentum. After a quick 6-2 start, HIU responded immediately, tying the game at 6-6, then eventually tying the game at 9-9 after the teams switched sides. The Spirit went on a run of their own pushing the lead to 12-9 after a Horatio Maumasi block and Caeden Salmen kill. Eventually the Spirit pushed the game to gamepoint at 14-11, however could not stop a late set takeover from outside hitter Cole Oliver who had 3 straight kills and failed to make an error the entire set. The Spirit pushed through a couple service errors and saw the game tied at 16-16. The Royals unfortunately seized the momentum and scored three in a row while ending the game with a Cole Oliver kill, who played a perfect game for them.

Saturday afternoon's contest started with senior Corey Johnson, who continued his terrific play leading all OUAZ hitters with 11 kills against a consistent Mustang block. The opposite has also been wreaking havoc as a blocker as his vertical makes it hard for opponents to swing angle consistently. Hotstio Maumasi, added 8 kills on an afternoon where he didn't get his usual amount of volume, but stayed consistent with the opportunities he got. Caeden Salmen notched 9 kills, but a majority of his game tonight came from the service line where the senior's hybrid serve gave Mustang passers fits all afternoon. The Anthem native had 4 aces and was able to keep a steady mix of pace on his hybrid serve which is nearly impossible to pass once it's clicking for him.

Set 1 was completely directed by Caeden Salmen, who put on a clinic behind the service line and took over with the team up 3 at 20-17. The senior outside and team captain put together back to back service aces on likely the best passing team in the country. The team extended the lead to 23-19 and ended the set on an Owen Draeger three ball kill. Masters quickly made adjustments behind a great coaching staff and dialed up the service pressure in set 2 acing the Spirit twice on a 10-2 run that pushed their lead to 20-12. After closing set 2, the Mustangs kept the foot on the gas in set 3. Caeden Salmen kept the Spirit in the game once again with some great sideout kills, however saw the lead bleed to 6 at 15-21. After going down 4, the Spirit pushed their way back into the game, but were shut down by a Mustang run of their own. Following a tough set 3, the Spirit let set 4 get away from them as Masters took an early lead and ran away with the set, The Mustangs led by as much as 10 and kept the service pressure on the Spirit.

OUAZ will continue its run in one of the toughest conferences in the country against Park University Gilbert on Wednesday, March 19th at 6:00pm inside Faith Arena. Then, the following day, on Thursday, March 20th will face another in-state rival #7 ranked Benedictine Mesa University at 6:00pm in Mesa. All games will be streamed on the GSAC Sports Network.
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