Nov. 22, 2008
Box Score
Davis, Calif. - The Pacific women's volleyball team closed out the Big West season with a sweep of UC Davis, 3-0, on Saturday, Nov. 22. The victory moved Pacific to 11-15 overall and finished the Big West season with a 10-6 record. UC Davis closed the 2008 season with an 12-17 record and a 4-12 mark in conference.
Set scores for the match: 25-18, 25-20 and 25-19.
The early action in the first set saw Pacific and UC Davis feel each other out, going through 13 ties. The Tigers took control of the set while trailing 15-14. Returning to the floor following the first media timeout, Pacific forced UC Davis into an attack error to tie the set at 15-15 and send sophomore Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) to the service line. The result was three points on serve, as Engelhardt surrounded a kill from junior Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) with two aces, propelling the Tigers to an 18-15 edge. Following a momentary slipup by the Pacific attack, the Tigers went right back to work. Senior Alexa Anderson (Los Gatos, Calif.) pounded a cross-court kill to make it 19-16 and send junior Dancyne Kama (Hilo, Hawaii) to the serving stripe. Kama's serve began with a service ace, following by two more Pacific points as Dancyne's short serve kept UC Davis out of system and allowed the Tigers to take a 22-16 lead. The Tigers went on to take the first set, 25-18 as Pacific finished the set with 14 kills and just two errors on 36 attempts for a .333 hitting percentage.
The Tigers fell behind 2-0 in set two, but used an 11-1 run to take an 11-3 lead off the hot serving from Engelhardt and Kama. Engelhardt served four straight points as the Tigers got kills from Anderson, Vaysburg and junior Mallori Gibson (Bakersfield, Calif.). After a point by UC Davis, Kama served six more points in a run that featured an ace and two blocks by the Tigers. The Aggies climbed back to tie things up, scoring 11 of the next 14 points to even the set at 14-14. Julie King had five kills in that stretch for UC Davis. Pacific got kills on the next two plays from Engelhardt and Gibson to stretch the lead back to 16-14 and scored two more points on Engelhardt aces to make the score 20-15. After the Tigers opened up a 22-16 lead, the Aggies closed the gap with three straight points and Pacific called a timeout. Anderson had a kill out of the timeout and after trading points, senior setter Shannon Krug (Boulder, Col.) closed out the second set with a kill to end it at 25-20.
The third set was back and forth in the early going again, as neither team could take control and the set was tied at 11-11. After the Aggies took a 12-11 lead on an ace by Avreeta Singh, the Tigers came right back with a kill from senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Marklowice, Poland). That sent senior Kara Uhl (Long Beach, Calif.) to the service line and she delivered three straight points as the Tigers picked up two more blocks. After a sideout by the Aggies, Tomaszewska served four more points including an ace as the Tigers took a 20-13 lead. From that point the teams mostly traded sideouts with Anderson closing out the match with a kill.
Anderson and Gibson each had 12 kills to lead the Tigers. Kama had 11 digs, while Uhl, Engelhardt and Gibson each had seven digs for Pacific. The Tigers out-hit UC Davis .315-.147, and held an 8.0-2.0 advantage in blocks.
The Tigers return to the court on Friday, Nov. 28 as Pacific hosts the 30th Annual Community Bankers Classic. Pacific will face Portland at 7 p.m. in the second match of the night, while Nevada and Utah will do battle at 5 p.m.
