March 9, 2007

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The No. 8 Pacific men's volleyball team improved to 12-9 overall and 8-7 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action with a 33-31, 30-27, 30-27 sweep of UC San Diego (5-14, 2-11 MPSF) on Friday, Mar. 9, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

Junior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland) led all attackers with 16 kills for the Tigers. Seniors Matt Cornell (Granada Hills, Calif.) and Dan Hammer (Glendale, Wis.) also recorded double figure kill totals for Pacific with 12 and 11, respectively.

Jason Spangler (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) led UC San Diego with a team-high 13 kills.

The first game was tight throughout. With the score knotted 31-31, Pacific closed out the game and took a one-game lead in the match on a Seppanen kill and a Triton attack error.

UC San Diego jumped out to an early 11-4 lead in game two. Pacific responded with a 12-4 run to take the lead at 16-15 midway through the game. The Tigers built their lead to as many as four points at 27-23 and held on for the 30-27 victory.

With game three tied at 18-18, Pacific claimed the momentum by scoring the next three points on a pair of Tiger blocks and a Simon Chen-Byerley (Northfield, Ill.) service ace. Pacific held the lead the remainder of the game and closed out the match with another 30-27 win.

Hammer recorded a match-high seven blocks to go along with his 11 kills. Senior setter Garrett Morales (Long Beach, Calif.) collected 50 assists, five digs, and four blocks (including two solo blocks).

Pacific is next in action with a MPSF match against No. 12 Long Beach State on Saturday, Mar. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Alex G. Spanos Center.