Feb. 10, 2007

Box Score

Irvine, Calif. - A night after nearly knocking off UCLA on the road, the pacific men's volleyball team posted a five game upset of No. 2 UC Irvine on Saturday, February 10. With the win the Tigers improved to 7-6 overall and 5-4 in MPSF action while the Anteaters dropped to 12-4 overall and 7-3 in conference action.

Game scores for the match were: 32-30, 30-28, 18-30, 15-30, 15-10

Pacific came out energized in the first two games of the match as the Tigers jumped out in front of the Anteaters early.

In the first game, the Tigers stormed out to a 15-9 lead, rolling off six straight points to force UC Irvine into a timeout. With a six point lead the two teams traded points as Pacific moved with in six points of the opening game with at 24-18 before the Anteaters six of the next seven points to cut Pacific's lead to just one point at 25-24. Fortunately, the Tigers stayed just ahead of the Anteaters as the game drew to a close with junior Simon Chen-Byerley (Northfield, Ill.) finishing the game off for the Tigers with a kill and a block teamed with sophomore Maor Nutkevitch (Ra'anana, Israel).

Game two went much the same way for the Tigers as they stormed out to a 15-10 lead to start the game. Just as before, UC Irvine responded to even the game at 19-19 and even took a one point lead on multiple occasions. Despite giving up the advantage to the Anteaters, the Tigers pushed back as the teams neared the 30 point mark, capturing the second game win on a kill by junior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland). Seppanen finished the game with a team-high 14 kills on 39 swings.

After the break, UC Irvine reversed the fortunes of the match as the Anteaters pounded out back-to-back wins to even the match at two games apiece.

Despite hitting .000 in the two losses and the momentum siding with the Anteaters, the Tigers rallied in game five of the match to capture the upset win over UC Irvine. The Tigers got out early in the final game, scoring six of the first eight points to take the four point advantage. From there, Pacific never looked back as the closest the Anteaters would get would be two points at 10-8, but Pacific needed just two chances to close out the match as Seppanen sealed the win with hit 14th kill of the match.

For the match, three Tigers hit double figures in kills led by Seppanen. Senior Matt Cornell (Granada Hills, Calif.) added 13 kills while Nutkevitch posted 10 kills. As a team Pacific hit just .164.

For the Anteaters, Jason Jablonsky tallied a game-high 17 kills on 34 swings. Aaron Harrell added 11 kills to round out the night for UC Irvine.

The Tigers will next be in action on February 16 as they play host to UCLA at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Game time is 7:00 pm.