Surprise, Ariz.- OUAZ men's volleyball falls short in its final matchup of the regular season with top 10 ranked Bendectine Mesa (25-21) (25-20) (25-16). The Spirit honored its 4 amazing seniors Jef Jamandron, Corey Johnson, Caeden Salmen, and Jonathan Worden before the game. Dedicating a portion of pregame to honoring these 4 players' stellar contributions to the program and the impact they have left for their underclassmen. After tonight's matchup the Spirit ended the season at a (9-10) overall record and a (4-6) conference record.

The Spirit came out the gates serving aggressively in set one jumping to a quick 11-7 lead following some great swings out of the opposite by Corey Johnson. The Redhawks came back with a run of their own led by their star graduate outside Landon Fuller. Their lead eventually grew to 19-15 after a 8-2 run. OUAZ did not go away themselves drawing within three at 22-19, however could not pull away due to some physical Fuller swings. Set 2, was mainly led by the Redhawk two headed monster of Landon Fuller and Dapre Rodgers pushing out a 10-4 lead. The Spirit quickly saw themselves in a huge hole 19-10, but did not go away. Freshman setter Gavin Shipman subbed in and orchestrated the offense to some quick scoring that brought the Spirit within four. Even after a great Salmen service run, the Redhawks converted on gamepoint by a quick Rodgers angle swing. Set 3, was unfortunately riddled with OUAZ hitting errors that gave the Redhawks great chances to pull away. The Redhawks led early 13-8 and did not slow down offensively. The Spirit battled, but had trouble going on runs to put themselves back in the game. Benedictine to end the game went on another long 7-3 run forcing OUAZ into several hitting errors. Eventually finishing off the game at 25-16.

Your OUAZ Spirit are nowhere done yet in the 2025 campaign. The Spirit will now enter the GSAC conference playoff where they sit at #4 seed. The team will have an opportunity to win the tournament and get an automatic bid to advance them to their 4th straight NAIA National Championship Tournament. They will travel to Santa Clarita, California where they will have a tall task in front of them, on Monday, April 14th against #1 Masters University. More details will be about game information provided this weekend so please stay tuned!