Feb. 16, 2007

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The No. 11 Pacific men's volleyball team earned its first-ever victory against UCLA with a three-game sweep of the No. 6 Bruins in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Friday, Feb. 16, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

Game scores were 30-22, 30-24, and 30-27.

With the win, Pacific improved to 8-6 overall and 6-4 in MPSF action. UCLA dropped to 7-7 overall (5-6 MPSF).

Pacific got started right off the bat in game one against the 19-time and defending national champions, taking a 10-7 lead in game one that they were able to stretch to as much as 10 points at 29-19 before recording a 30-22 victory. The ball kept rolling for the Tigers in game number two as the Tigers turned a 11-10 deficit into a 15-11 lead after running off five straight points which included three Bruin errors and two kills by junior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland). A solo block by senior Dan Hammer gave the Tigers a 27-20 advantage, and they would close out the game 30-24.

Game three saw the Bruins and Tigers joust back and forth, with UCLA taking a 20-17 lead midway through the game. The Tigers came back to score seven of the next nine points to retake the lead at 24-22. The big point of the match came at 28-27 Pacific as senior Matt Cornell (Granada Hills, Calif.) saved a ball off a touch at the net and freshman Maor Nutkevitch (Ra'anana, Israel) some how made a perfect backwards bump set from the Tigers bench to Seppanen, who went cross court for the kill to set Pacific up with game point. Cornell and Hammer then combined for a block on the Bruins Steve Klosterman to seal the Tiger victory, their first over the Bruins in 27 meetings.

Seppanen paced the Tigers with a match-high 15 kills, while Cornell added 14 kills and 10 digs. Hammer added six kills on 12 attacks with no errors, two solo blocks and six block assists to total 11 points, and Nutkevitch added nine kills.

As a team, Pacific outhit the Bruins .369 to .139 and recorded 12 more kills in the match.

UCLA was led by Steve Klosterman and Paul George who tallied 10 kills apiece.

Pacific returns to action against No. 3 UC Irvine on Saturday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. at the Alex G. Spanos Center.