Nov. 9, 2007

Box Score

Northridge, Calif. - Behind 21 kills and 14 digs from freshman Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany), the Pacific women's volleyball team defeated Cal State Northridge, 3-1, on Friday, Nov. 9.

The victory lifted the Tigers to 15-8 on the season and 8-6 in the Big West Conference, while the Matadors dropped to 10-17 overall and 6-8 in conference play.

Game scores for the match were: 30-28, 24-30, 30-19, 31-29.

An early burst of points keyed by a service ace from Engelhardt pushed the Tigers to a 14-10 lead early in the first game. Needing just one more point to send the game to its first media timeout, Pacific surrendered five straight to Cal State Northridge as the Matadors took the lead 15-14. Following the media timeout, Cal State Northridge stretched the run to seven points to build a 17-14 edge.

Moments later with the Matadors leading 21-17, Pacific responded with another short burst. With junior Kara Uhl (Cypress, Calif.) serving, the Tigers rattled off four points of their own as Engelhardt tallied three kills and Pacific forced an error to tie the game at 21-21.

After trading points to push the score to 24-24, the Matadors appeared to seize control behind back-to-back points on a kill from Angela Hupp and a block by Val Kepler and Brittany Williams. That forced Pacific head coach Charlie Wade to use his final timeout.

Trailing 28-26 four points later it would be the Tigers that claimed the first game as Pacific scored the final four points of the game. The Matadors started Pacific's rally with a service error, and then senior Johanna Hilbers (Omaha, Neb.) followed with her second kill to even the score at 28-28. Following a Matador timeout, Pacific setter junior Shannon Krug (Colorado Springs, Colo.) found Uhl open for back-to-back kills from the left side to lift Pacific to a 30-28 win.

While the Tigers were able to fight through inconsistent play in the first game, Cal State Northridge punished Pacific for the same mistakes in the second frame. The Matadors forced the Tigers into four attack errors to open game two and quickly built an 8-2 lead. Cal State Northridge pushed their lead to as much as 11 at 21-10, before the Tigers attempted a late rally. Pacific responded with two separate 4-0 runs down the stretch of game two, but the rally wasn't enough as the Matadors evened the match by taking game two, 30-24. Pacific finished game two with a .100 hitting percentage as the Tigers had 17 kills, but committed 12 errors on 50 attempts.

Following the break, the Tigers returned to the court with much more focus and delivered their best game of the match as Pacific hit .417 as a team with 18 kills and just three errors on 36 attempts. The key difference for the Tigers in game three was the play of sophomore Meagan MimMack (Upland, Calif.) as she collected six kills on just nine attempts, without committing an error. The key series in game three came with Pacific leading 8-6. Pacific stretched the lead to 12-6 as MimMack knocked down a kill on the slide play. Following a ball handling error by the Matadors, junior Alexa Anderson (Los Gatos, Calif.) posted a solo block, then Engelhardt capped the run with a kill from the left side. Staked to a six point lead, the Tigers cruised to a 30-19 win in game three.

Game four began very similar to the second frame as Cal State Northridge sprinted out to a big early lead, 17-9. This time, however, the Tigers were able to begin their comeback charge early enough to track down the Matadors. Trailing 17-9, Pacific scored eight of the next nine points to pull within a point at 18-17. Engelhardt and Uhl led the charge for Pacific as Engelhardt notched two aces and a kill, while Uhl posted three kills and a block.

Cal State Northridge fought back to extend the match as the Matadors extended their lead back to four at 23-19, but the Tigers had another run in them. This time it was a team effort as Hilbers, Engelhardt and MimMack nabbed consecutive kills to make it a 23-22 contest. Following a Cal State Northridge timeout, the Tigers earned their first lead since early in the game at 24-23 by forcing back-to-back Matador errors

A back and forth battle pushed game four to a 29-29 tie with the Matadors serving. Cal State Northridge junior Val Kepler handed the Tigers their second match point of the night on a service error. This time the Tigers capitalized as Uhl ended the match with her 17th kill of the night to cap a 31-29 win in game four.

Engelhardt's 21 kills led all attackers, while Uhl finished with 17 kills, Hilbers posted 15 kills and MimMack smacked down 13 kills.

Krug finished the night with 58 assists and 13 digs for her eighth double-double of the season. Uhl and Engelhardt also collected double-doubles.

Angela Hupp led the Matadors with 12 kills in the match.

Pacific returns to the court on Saturday, Nov. 10 as the Tigers head to Long Beach, Calif. to take on the Long Beach State 49ers at 7 p.m. in the Pyramid.