Oct. 6, 2008

Stockton, Calif.- The Pacific men's volleyball team and head coach Joe Wortmann announced the release of the 2008 UBC Thunderball Men's Volleyball Tournament Scheduled on Monday, October 6th. The tournament will be played on October 8th, 10th and 11th, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The tournament will feature four elite level teams from all over the globe including: University of the Pacific, University of British Columbia (UBC), SKK University (Korea) and University of Hawai'i. Each team will play a round-robin schedule followed by the championship and consolation matches occurring Saturday evening.

Each match will consist of best-of-five sets, and each set will be rally scoring to 25 points, with a fifth set going to 15 points.

The host school, UBC, took home the gold in last year's tournament. SSK-Korea is one of the world's top-rated volleyball programs, having produced several Korean national team players, as well as garnering four national championships, two silver medals, and two bronzes in the last 11 years. Hawai'i proves to be a familiar face for the Tigers, as they face this MPSF opponent twice every year. Finishing last year 11-16 overall, with an 8-14 record in conference, the Warriors have always been a national powerhouse and will look to make some noise in the tournament. The Warriors won the Thunderball Tournament back in 2006.

"We are very excited for this tournament," said Wortmann. "There will be a lot of new faces out on the floor for us. This is the beginning of a new era in Pacific Volleyball, and this tournament will be a valuable assessment of where our team stands in the national scene."

The Tigers start off the tournament on Friday October 10th, as they face UBC at 1:00pm.

The complete Tournament schedule is as follows:

THUNDERBALL Schedule (All games at War Gym)

Wednesday, October 8th
UBC vs. SKK (7:00 p.m.)

Friday, October 10th
Hawaii vs. SKK (11:00 a.m.)
UBC vs. Pacific (1:00 p.m.)
Pacific vs. SKK (6:00 p.m.)
UBC vs. Hawaii (8:00 p.m.)

Saturday, October 11th
Pacific vs. Hawaii (11:00 a.m.)
Bronze Medal Game (6:00 p.m.)
Gold Medal Game (8:00 p.m.)