Sept. 26, 2008

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - Playing on a night in which former Tiger great Jennifer Joines' jersey was retired, the Pacific women's volleyball team put on a show, downing No. 22 Long Beach State in three games on Friday, September 26.

Set scores for the match were: 25-23, 25-17, 25-23.

The win moved the Tigers to 2-8 overall and 2-0 in Big West play while the 49ers fell to 10-3 on the year and 0-1 in conference action. It was Pacific's first victory over Long Beach State since Sept. 23, 2004.

The Tigers stumbled out of the gate at the start of the match, falling behind 6-1. A Long Beach State service error helped right the Tigers' ship. Senior Alexa Anderson (Los Gatos, Calif.) seized the opportunity with a kill and a solo block surrounding two Long Beach State errors and a service ace from Pacific senior Shannon Krug (Colorado Springs, Colo.), pulling the Tigers even at 7-7.

Tied at 9-9 moments later, Pacific grabbed their first lead of the match on a cross-court kill from sophomore Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany). Junior Mallori Gibson (Bakersfield, Calif.) followed with back-to-back kills to push the Tigers ahead, 12-9. The Tigers maintained their advantage through the middle of the set, but Long Beach State wasn't done yet.

The 49ers pulled even at 19-19 behind consecutive points and forced three more ties as the two teams traded points until 22-22. Pacific went back in front on a Gibson's sixth kill of the match, then the Tigers put up back-to-back blocks to take the set, 25-22. Engelhardt and junior Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) threw up the first roof, then Gibson and Vaysburg closed the set by denying the 49ers' Caitlin Ledoux.

The second set was purely one-sided as the Tigers raced out to a 5-2 lead to force Long Beach State's first timeout, then extended their lead to 10-5 to bring out the 49ers second stoppage of play. Anderson got things rolling for the Tigers again with three kills in the first six points, Krug chipped in with her second ace and senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Marklowice, Poland) added kill in the middle to force the first Long Beach State timeout. Pacific's second set of five came via two kills by Gibson, two Long Beach State errors and a service ace from senior Kara Uhl (Long Beach, Calif.).

Leading 14-9 later in the second set, Pacific surged ahead again. This time it was a little from everyone as Anderson, Engelhardt and Gibson each contributed a kill. Another Long Beach State error gave the Tigers an 18-10 edge, allowing Pacific to coast to a 25-17 victory. The Tigers hit an astounding .469 for the set with 17 kills and only two errors on 32 attempts. Long Beach State, meanwhile, hit .296 with 12 kills and just two errors as well on 27 swings.

Coming out of the locker room from the break that saw Joines' jersey retired, both teams seemed to be engergized. The result was seven ties in 14 points, bringing the score to 7-7. The Tigers forced the 49ers into two attack errors and Engelhardt added a roll shot kill to give Pacific a small amount of separation at 10-7. Following a 49er kill, Engelhardt and Anderson delivered cross-court hammers to make it 12-8 and force Long Beach State head coach Brian Gimilarro to use his first time out.

The Tigers maintained their four point advantage through the 19-15 mark. Feeding off a frenzied crowd, the Tigers pushed out to a 21-15 lead behind blocks from Anderson and Tomaszewsk, followed by a roof courtesy of Krug and Vaysburg. The 49ers made a final push to tie the set at 23-23, but as they did all night, the Tigers found an answer. Anderson gave Pacific its first match point of the night on a kill down the line, then junior Dancyne Kama (Hilo, Hawaii) punctuated the evening with an ace to give Pacific a 25-23 win.

Anderson led the Tigers with 17 kills, while Gibson added 13 kills and a .409 hitting percentage. Krug delivered a stellar performance with 41 assists, two service aces, two kills and five digs.

Caitlin Ledoux led the 49ers with eight kills in the match.

Pacific returns to the floor on Friday, Oct. 3 as the Tigers take on UC Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, Calif. at 7 p.m. in the Thunderdome.