April 7, 2007

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The No. 11 Pacific men's volleyball team fell to 14-15 overall and 8-12 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with a 30-28, 30-23, 30-27 loss to No. 1 Pepperdine (23-1, 19-1) on Saturday, Apr. 7, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

Pacific played a close match throughout game one, led by Matt Cornell (Granada Hills, Calif.) with eight kills in the first game. The Tigers survived through one game point at 29-27 on a kill by junior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland) but they could not hold the Waves of a second time as they took the game 30-28.

In game two the Tigers took the lead at 15-14 on a kill by Cornell, but after a series of errors, Pepperdine reclaimed the lead and the Tigers were unable to recover. The Waves, outhitting the Tigers .625 to .242, claimed the second game, 30-23.

The Tigers started strong in game three, taking an early lead at 5-1. Pepperdine closed in on the Tigers at 17-17 and the teams exchanged points back and forth until the Waves broke out at 27-26. Following a Pacific timeout, Pepperdine added two more kills to have match point at 29-26. Pacific fought one of the match points off on a kill by Cornell, but the Waves took the match with 30-27 game three victory on a J.D. Schleppenbach kill.

The Tigers were led by Cornell, who tallied a game high 21 kills and seven digs. Senior Garrett Morales (Long Beach, Calif.) added two solo blocks and sophomore Maor Nutkevitch (Ra'anana, Israel) added 12 kills for the Tigers.

Pepperdine was led by Scleppenbach, who had 14 kills and four blocks and senior Tom Husle with a game high nine blocks.

The Tigers are next in action Friday, April 14 against No. 3 Brigham Young at the Alex G. Spanos Center, 7p.m. PST.