Feb. 22, 2008

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Pacific men's volleyball team dropped to 1-13 overall (1-10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) with a 30-28, 30-25, 17-30, 30-21 loss to No. 14 Hawai'i (5-7, 4-5 MPSF) on Friday, Feb. 22, at the Alex G. Spanos Center.

In game one, the Tigers fell behind 9-6, but rallied to score three straight points and even the game at 9-9 after three kills in a row from senior Blake Gentry (Ladera Ranch, Calif.). The Warriors again took the lead at 16-13, but the Tigers came back again with a 6-2 spurt to take a 19-18 lead. The run was keyed by the only two hitting errors of the game by the Warriors. The Tigers were able to take the lead to 27-24 lead thanks in part to two consecutive aces by sophomore Clay Ostrander (Wheaton, Ill.). The Warriors came back to score three straight points to take a 28-27 lead. Senior Pekka Seppanen's (Kuopio, Finland) kill even it up at 28-28, but the Warriors scored the final two points to wrap up game one.

Game two was very back and forth game, with neither team leading by more than two points until the Warriors scored three straight points to take a 23-20 lead. Hawai'i took advantage of nine Pacific service errors in game two, with the Warriors able to close out the game 30-25.

In game three the Tigers took a 9-4 lead, keyed by two kills from junior Jeff Hendershot (Claremont, Calif.) and three hitting errors from the Warriors' Keali'i Frank. Frank had five kills on five swings before the errors. The Tigers maintained their lead to 14-9, then outscored the Warriors 6-3 to take a 20-12 lead and take control of the game. Finishing off the game by outscoring Hawai'i 10-5, the Tigers hit .417 and had seven aces in game three.

In game four, Hawai'i was able to take an early lead and build it to 19-12. The Tigers responded with three straight points to cut the lead to 19-15. The Tigers committed three straight service errors and a hitting error as the Warriors were able to take the lead back to 25-18 and finished off the game 30-21.

Hawai'i out-hit the Tigers .296-.221, including a .519 hitting percentage in game one. The Warriors out-blocked the Tigers 13.5-6.0.

Hendershot led all players with 17 kills, while Seppanen added 13 kills and Gentry had 12 kills. The Tiger middle blockers Gentry and senior Simon Chen-Byerley (Northfield, Ill.) combined for 21 kills with just three errors.

The Tigers play Hawai'i again on Monday, Feb. 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the Spanos Center.