FRESNO, Calif. - Racking up their sixteenth win of the season, the No. 19 'Birds swept past Azusa Pacific with scores of 25-16, 25-10, and 25-16. It was a thrilling night of milestones for the Sunbirds as Cambria Waites captured her 100th career ace in the third set and middle Itzel Aguayo contributed a season-high eight kills against the Cougars.

In the first set, Geneva Elliott started things off with a bang after her powerful shot to the right ricocheted off a Cougar defender into the stands. Leading scorer for FPU Madelyn Feramisco, sophomore Makayla Smith and junior middle Itzel Aguayo bumped Fresno Pacific to a five-point lead. Despite service errors from the 'Birds, the Cougars struggled to bridge the gap and fell behind. A great pass from Devyn Castaneda gave Smith the chance to set up Elliott for the eleventh point. The senior middle blocker went on to shut down the Cougars next attempt, with a tandem block in the middle. With Weiss on the serving line, Feramisco covered a blocked ball and quickly bounced back to send the ball down the line, making it 14-6 for the Sunbirds. Elliott buried a ball right in front of the libero, tallying her third kill of the game to secure the seven-point lead for FPU. The Cougars repeatedly tooled the block in order to gain momentum, but FPU remained steadfast with a nifty behind the back shot by Weiss to break into the twenties. Just as it started, Elliott shoved an overpass to the left side to end the set, 25-16.

Another great serving run for Weiss led to an eight-point lead at the start of the second set. Smith and Aguayo were a wall at the net for the 'Birds, efficiently protecting Elliott playing defense on the line, to bump the lead to 11-3. Azusa Pacific struggled to break past ten points as libero Castaneda remained vigilant on the line and Sydney Hancock brought offensive fire to the net. Using the Cougars' block to her advantage, Rachel Plantinga recorded back-to-back kills and captured the final point with a shot down the line, winning the set 25-10.

Azusa Pacific brought more defensive fire in the third set, but Waites repeatedly found her way through the block to make it a 4-1 lead for the Sunbirds. Hancock and Aguayo responded to the Cougars late surge and forced an APU timeout at the 7-3 mark. Waites went on to have a serving spree with Aguayo and Weiss bouncing balls at the net to bump the lead to 20-4. In a thrilling comeback, the Cougars gained a late burst that brought them up to sixteen points, but Fresno Pacific took care of business and won the set 25-16.

The Sunbirds recorded a remarkable number of service aces against the Cougars, specifically Weiss with three and Waites with five, hitting her 100^th career ace in the third set. The middles led the 'Birds offense in every category with Elliott contributing nine kills and Mt. San Antonio transfer Aguayo hitting a season-high eight overall, both surpassed a .538 hitting percentage. Weiss, the Sunbird of the Week, went on to capture another double-double on the season, 34 assists and 11 digs. Defensively, libero Castaneda had 15 digs and two assists after three sets.

Fresno Pacific volleyball is officially 16-0 overall and 4-0 in conference. The Blue and Orange is second in the conference standings, trailing behind Point Loma who is currently 5-0 in conference. Although the Sunbirds recently defeated the No. 6 Sea Lions in last week's non-conference match, the two nationally-ranked teams will meet once more on Saturday, November 15th at the Golden Gymnasium for the conference match that counts.

NEXT UP: The No. 19 Sunbirds travel to Vanguard University on Friday, October 17 for the 5:00 pm match.

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