Warriors Battle with #6 OUAZ

Westcliff Warriors hosted #6 OUAZ for their home opener on Friday night.

There was a lot of excitement as the Warriors are looking to crack the top 15 in the NAIA. Currently sitting unofficially at #16 for your Warriors.

OUAZ came into the 1st set cruising with a lot of blocks, kills and service aces to edge the Warriors.

Heading into the 2nd set was a different story as both teams were exchanging point after point. There was only about 2 to 1 point difference in the 2nd set until the 20 point mark which saw the Spirit go up 23-20.

A quick timeout from the Warriors saw 3 straight points to tie the set 23-23. Finally a service error from the Spirit and a huge solo block from Tom Dempsey game the set win to the Warriors.

The 3rd and 4th set were both tough seeing a lot of Kills from both squads. 

The Spirit take the 3rd 25-22. Into the 4th set we saw the potential of the Warriors. Facing 4 match point opportunities the Warriors were able to respond with some high power Kills from both Gabriel Pizza and Ilias Lazaar. Unfortunately facing a 5th match point saw the Spirit grab the win against the Warriors.

Warriors had a lot of standout performances in their home opener. Gabriel Pizza 2023 Cal Pac Newcomer of the Year led both teams in kills and hitting percentage with 15 Kills tieing his season high and also hit for .565 which is a season high for him so far. Pizza also had 1 Service Ace and 6 Digs.

Ilias Lazaar grabbed 10 kills.

Pawel Tuz with 33 assists and 3 total blocks.

Tom Dempsey shined at serving racking up 3 service aces and 0 service errors on a night where service errors were all that fans could see.

OUAZ with 25 service errors and Westcliff with 13. Dempsey also grabbed a total of 6 Digs and a Huge Solo Block that gave them the 2nd set.

Last but not least Leonardo Garcia back at Libero had a total of 9 Digs with 2 assists.

Warriors will be back on the court facing off against Arizona Christian.