April 6, 2007

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The No. 11 Pacific men's volleyball team fell to 14-14 overall and 8-11 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action with a hard-fought five-game loss to No. 14 USC (11-13, 8-11 MPSF) on Friday, April 6, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

Game scores were 25-30, 31-29, 26-30, 30-27, 17-15.

In game one Pacific outhit the Trojans .481 to .036, and put together a 6-2 run at 24-23 to win 30-25.

USC responded in game two with back-to-back kills at 29-29 from C.J. Schellenberg, winning the game 31-29.

In game three the Tigers held the lead throughout the game, cruising to a 30-26 victory thanks to contributions from sophomore Maor Nutkevitch (Ra'anana, Israel) with seven kills and junior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland), who added five kills.

The Tigers took an early lead in game four at 10-7, but USC fought back and tied the game after two back-to-back attack errors. The Trojans took the game, 30-27.

In game five the Tigers took the lead at 6-4. The Trojans fought hard to tie the game 14-14. Following back-to-back attack errors, the Trojans finished off the match with a 17-15 win.

Nutkevitch led the Tigers with a career-high 26 kills while Senior Matt Cornell added 19, and Seppanen with 15.

The Trojans were lead by junior Juan Figueroa, who had a game high 28 kills.

The Tigers are next in action on Saturday, April 7 as they host No. 1 Pepperdine at 7pm in the Alex G. Spanos Center.