March 30, 2007

Box Score

Santa Barbara, Calif. - The No. 11 ranked Pacific men's volleyball team fell in heartbreaking fashion to the No. 5 ranked UC Santa Barbara Gauchos by the score of 3-2 on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at Robertson Gymnasium.

The game scores were 32-34, 30-19, 30-17, 21-30, 15-11.

With the loss, the Tigers fall to 14-12, 8-9 in the MPSF, while the Gauchos improve to 16-10, 11-7.

The Tigers came out of the gates strong, as Pacific hit .349 in game one, being led by junior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland) who recorded nine kills in 15 swings with just one error in the game in leading Pacific to a 34-32 game one victory.

The Gauchos rebounded on their home floor, winning the next two games by comfortable margins, 30-19, and 30-17, while holding the Tigers to just 20 kills in games two and three combined. UC Santa Barbara tallied 21 kills in game three alone, hitting at a .588 clip.

Game four saw Pacific rally with their backs against the wall, pulling the match even at 2-2 with a 30-21 victory that saw junior Simon Chen-Byerley (Northfield, Ill.) record six kills on seven attacks with no errors to pace the Tigers.

Game five saw Pacific's hitting woes return, as the Tigers had just five kills to four errors on 12 attacks in falling to the Gauchos 15-11 in the deciding game, which marked the second time the teams have went to five games against each other this season.

The Tigers were led by Seppanen, who ended the match with 21 kills on 40 attacks with just five errors, posting a .400 hitting percentage. Freshman Maor Nutkevitch (Ra'anana, Israel) added 14 kills, while Chen-Byerley ended the match with 10 terminations.

UCSB was led by Evan Patak, who mustered a match high 30 kills to lead four Gauchos in double digit kills.

Pacific continues the southern road swing on Saturday, March 31st as they travel to No. 8 Cal State Northridge. First serve is scheduled for 7pm from the Matadome.