FRESNO, Calif.-For the fifth time in the last six matches, the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (7-9 overall, 4-4 PacWest) went five sets, but ultimately fell to the Azusa Pacific Cougars (10-8 overall, 7-3 PacWest) Friday inside the Special Events Center.

Mia Gilcrest had a career-high 15 kills to lead a strong offensive effort from FPU but errors piled up in a back and forth contest, with APU coming out in front.

Fresno Pacific soared in the opening set behind Corinne Acosta, who had four of her 12 kills to push the Sunbirds to a 25-18 win in the opener.

Azusa Pacific cleaned up its act in the second set, committing just 3 errors to FPU's 9 and evened the match after a 25-15 result.

The third set is where the topsy-turvy results showed up as Fresno Pacific led 20-15 but committed a bulk of its 7 errors in a big run for APU that flipped the set into a 25-23 result.

But the Sunbirds were resilient in the fourth, during the cleanest set of the match on both sides. Gilcrest kicked into high gear as FPU delivered another 14 kills to take the set 25-20.

The fourth set went back and forth until APU limped in front 8-6. The Cougars never surrendered the lead to pull out the match 15-11.

FPU was good at the service line with Catie Speas, McKenna Huges and Cambria Waites all recording three aces.

Madison Girnius led a strong block with 5 while Cambria Waites had a game high 31 assists.

Makena Ogas rounded out FPU's double-digit attackers with 12 kills.

The Sunbirds are 3-2 in five set matches, with all of those coming in the last six matches.

Fresno Pacific will have to regroup quickly with conference leading Point Loma coming into the Special Events Center Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. to close out the homestand for the Sunbirds.

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