Oct. 10, 2008
Box Score
Stockton, Calif. - Avenging two losses during the 2007 season, the Pacific women's volleyball team swept UC Irvine on Friday, Oct. 10 in the Alex G. Spanos Center.
Set scores for the match: 27-25, 25-21, 25-20.
The victory moved the Tigers to 4-9 on the season and 4-1 in the Big West Conference. UC Irvine, meanwhile, dropped to 7-10 overall and 2-2 in conference play.
The first set between the two conference rivals was a feeling out process as the squads traded points back and forth. Neither team pushed its lead to more than two points throughout the set. Trailing 21-19 late in the first set, Pacific scored four of the next five points to reclaim an advantage. Junior Mallori Gibson (Bakersfield, Calif.) started the Pacific charge with a cross-court kill from the right side. Senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Marklowice, Poland) made UC Irvine pay for an overpass on the next point by slamming down the ball to knot the set up at 21-21. Following a kill by UC Irvine's Riley Cropper, Gibson and Tomaszewska went back-to-back again to give the Tigers a 23-22 lead.
Pacific misfired on two set points resulting in three more ties to bring the score to 25-25. The fourth time was the charm for Pacific as UC Irvine's Taryn Robertson served the ball into the net to push the Tigers up, 26-25, then Gibson closed out the first set with her seventh kill to lift Pacific to a 27-25 win. The Tigers earned the victory despite being out hit, .448 to .275 by the Anteaters as UC Irvine committed just one hitting error in the set.
The Tigers raised their defensive intensity in the second game, forcing UC Irvine into six errors, including three via Tigers' blocks. The critical stretch of the second set came at 13-13. Pacific earned the necessary separation with another four of the five burst. This time it was a group effort as senior Alexa Anderson (Los Gatos, Calif.) and juniors Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) and Dancyne Kama (Hilo, Hawaii) each notched one kill, while UC Irvine added an error to push the Tigers' lead to 17-13. Pacific never relinquished the advantage, taking set two, 25-21. Pacific finished the second set with a .259 to .121 hitting lead.
The third and final set provided the Tigers' best overall performance of the night. Pacific finished the set with 17 kills and just four errors on 33 swings for a .394 hitting effort. UC Irvine raised its level of play to hit .281 (14 kills and five errors on 32 attempts) but it wasn't enough. This time the turning point came very early in the match. Tied 3-3, Tomaszewska sandwiched kills around two UC Irvine errors (including one on a block by Tomaszewska and Gibson) to lift the Tigers out to a 7-3 lead. Pacific did not look back, taking the set and the match with a 25-20 win.
Anderson finished with a match-high 14 kills, while Gibson had 10 kills. Sophomore Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) and Tomaszewska each finished with eight kills.
UC Irvine's Kari Pestolesi led the Anteaters with 13 kills and 10 digs.
The Tigers return to the court on Saturday, Oct. 11 as Pacific hosts UC Riverside at 7 p.m. in the Alex G. Spanos Center.
