Oct. 13, 2007

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - Behind a record tying 11 service aces and a triple double from freshman Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) served the Pacific volleyball team to a 3-1 win over Cal State Northridge on Saturday, October 13.

With the win the Tigers improved to 11-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big West while the Matadors fell to 7-13 on the season and 4-4 in conference play.

Game scores for the match were: 30-15, 30-20, 26-30, 33-31.

Pacific dominated the first two games of the match as the Pacific forced Cal State Northridge into 13 combined attacking errors and delivered 11 aces in the opening two frames.

Fitting to the match, game one began with two service aces. Junior Shannon Krug (Colorado Springs, Colo.) got Pacific rolling with the opening two points and the Tigers blasted out to a 12-3 lead. Juniors Alexa Anderson (Los Gatos, Calif.), Kara Uhl (Cypress, Calif.) and sophomore Meagan MimMack (Upland, Calif.) each nailed two kills to spark Pacific's run.

The Tigers pushed their lead to as much as 12 at 21-9, then moments later Engelhardt began to assert her will from the service line. With the Tigers leading 23-12, Svenja delivered three aces around a kill from Anderson to boost the Pacific lead to 27-12. The Tigers went on to take the game 30-15 as Pacific hit .333 in the game with 15 kills and three errors on 36 attempts.

Game two remained close through the opening third of the frame as Pacific and Cal State Northridge were tied at 9-9. Once again Engelhardt served the Matadors out of the game as Svenja earned a trip to the service line with a kill, then dished out four aces over five points as Pacific built a 15-9 lead. The Tigers used the momentum to extend their lead to as much as 11 at 23-12 and took game two, 30-20.

Coming out of the break, Cal State Northridge returned to the floor with much more intensity as the Matadors built a 12-6 edge. Engelhardt, however, pushed Pacific back into the game with a third string of serves. Engelhardt grabbed the serve with a kill, then lifted the Tigers to seven straight points on serve, including three aces to give Pacific a 14-12 lead. Despite Engelhardt 11th service ace of the match later in game three, Cal State Northridge battled back to claim the third frame, 30-26. During the game, Pacific committed eight attacking errors and hit just .128, their lowest percentage of the match.

After the Tigers dropped a match the night before that Pacific held a 2-0 lead, senior Johanna Hilbers (Omaha, Neb.) made certain the Tigers would not have a repeat performance as she nailed down 10 kills to lift Pacific to a 33-31 win. Pacific and Cal State Northridge battled through 21 ties and six lead changes in the game, but Hilbers imposed her will down the stretch with three kills during the final five points of the match.

Hilbers finsihed with a match-high 19 kills, while Anderson delivered 13 kills and Uhl had 12 kills.

The star of the night for the Tigers, however, was Engelhardt. Svenja's 11 aces tied Pacific's single-match record, set by Robin Burns against Fresno State on Oct. 18, 1983. In addition, with 13 kills, 11 aces and 10 digs, Svenja is the first Tiger since 2003 to record a triple-double. The late Tiger to reach such a feat was Hayley Anderson as she posted 10 kills, 55 assists and 15 digs on Sept. 18, 2003.

Angela Hupp and Alex Johnson led the Matadors with 13 kills each.

Pacific will be back in action on Friday, Oct. 19 as the Tigers host Cal State Bakersfield at 7 p.m. in the Alex G. Spanos Center.