Jan. 26, 2008

Box Score

Santa Barbara, Calif.- The Tigers' men's volleyball team came up short in earning their first victory of the season as they fell to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in three games on Saturday night in Robertson Gymnasium.

The loss drops Pacific to 0-8 overall and 0-6 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) play, while UC Santa Barbara improves to 2-6 overall and 1-4 in the MPSF. Scores of the match were: 30-26, 30-21, 30-22.

The Tigers opened up game one with a close battle for the lead against the Gauchos. A service ace by senior Simon Chen-Byerley (Northfield, Ill.) gave Pacific a 5-3 lead. It was here, that UCSB mounted a four point run behind the hitting of Theo Brunner and Jeff Menzel to make the score 7-5. The Tigers answered the Gauchos with a run of their own, thanks in large part to redshirt senior Blake Gentry (Ladera Ranch, Calif.). Gentry opened with a kill in the middle out of serve receive, then put up two consecutive blocks to make the score 8-7 in favor of Pacific. The game remained close the rest of the way through until the score was 25-25. Again, the Gauchos started a three point rally behind Brunner and Menzel, to take the lead 28-25. Moments later, a block by Brunner and Max Klineman won the game for UCSB 30-26.

The second game started out very similar to game one, with a power struggle for the early lead. Sophomore Jason Borchin (Roseville, Calif.) buried a kill from the outside to tie the score up at 5-5. UC Santa Barbara would not back down however, and again behind Menzel and Brunner, the Gauchos scored six out of the next seven points to take an 11-6 lead. A stagnant offense found the Tigers in a 20-9 hole in the game, and Pacific never recovered. After a timeout at 20-10, the Tigers mounted a short rally to make the score 21-14, but it was to no avail. A final push by the Gauchos closed the game out, 30-21.

The Tiger offense woke up early in game three, and behind a kill from junior Jeff Hendershot (Claremont, Calif.) and two kills from senior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland), took a 4-1 lead. UC Santa Barbara took a timeout and rallied behind a service error, and two consecutive blocks to tie the score up at 4-4. The two teams battled back and forth for a while, then Pacific's offense slowed tremendously. Several hitting errors put the Tigers in a 10-6 hole from which they never recovered. With the score 22-16, in favor of the Gauchos, a kill by Max Klineman sealed the game for UC Santa Barbara as they never looked back and closed the game out 30-22.

Pacific was lead by Gentry, who had six kills with one error on 10 attempts for a hitting percentage of .500. Seppanen lead the team with 10 kills on the night.

The Gauchos were led by Brunner with 12 kills on 23 attempts with one error.

The Tigers are next in action Thursday, Jan. 31 versus the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford University. Game time is 7:00pm.