Oct. 31, 2009

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - Coming off a tough loss the night before, the Pacific women's volleyball team took care of business on Saturday, October 31 as they upset No. 23 UC Irvine, 3-1 at the Alex G. Spanos Center. The win for the Tigers snapped a three match losing streak for Pacific and moved the team to 16-7 overall and 6-5 in the Big West while the Anteaters fell to 17-6 overall and 7-4 in conference action.  For the year the two teams split their two meeting with each team taking a four set victory at home.

Set scores for the match: 25-18, 25-22, 16-25, 25-20.

Needing a win to right the ship and get back on track after a tough two weeks, the Tigers did not disappoint their fans on Saturday night, sending them home with the treat of a top-25 upset on Halloween night.  Returning to the form that put the Tigers in the top of the conference through the first half of the season, Pacific put the Anteaters behind from the start of the match and never let up to take home the four set victory. 

In the opening set, the Tigers stymied the Anteaters' vaunted attack, holding UC Irvine to just .031 hitting (8-7-32) while coasting to the seven point victory.  Through the first half of the opening set the two teams played relatively even with the Tigers building an early four point lead through the first 20 points only to see the Anteaters cut the lead to one at 12-11 with three straight points.  With UC Irvine nipping at their heels, the Tigers broke open the first set with an 8-3 run, led by senior Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) in the middle.  The senior put the Tigers' on her back both on the offensive and defensive sides of the net as she tallied four of the eight points for the Tigers as she tallied a pair of kills and a pair of blocks, both along side senior Mallori Gibson (Bakersfield, Calif.) during the run.  With the six points lead Pacific would seal the opening set win with a balanced attack from all three of their outside hitters.

After taking the first set the Tigers came back for more in the second, only this time they would be forced to play catch up with the Ateaters as UC Irvine took five different leads throughout the first 40 points of the set before the Tigers finally broke through at 16-16 to take a lead their would not relinquish.  Like the first set, Pacific looked towards the middle of the court and their senior middle blockers to lead the way to victory in the set and this time it was senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Marklowice, Poland) who stepped up late as she put down three kills and and posted a block along side of Gibson to tally for of Pacific's final five points.

Up big, the Tigers hit a small bump in the road in the third set of the night as the No. 23 ranked Anteaters threw everything they had at the Tigers to stave of elimination in the match, tallying their best statistical set of the night to capture the set.  Out of the media timeout, the Anteaters came out swinging and were perfect doing so they went error free in 33 swings while tallying a match-high 16 kills.  Their .485 hitting percentage and a balanced attack in which all six of the Anteaters players on the court registered at least two kills kep the Tigers in check, at least for one set.

Seeing their lead shrink to one set, the Tigers did not let a repeat performance of the previous night occur as they came out in set four determined to put the Anteaters away for good.  The set could not have started better for the Tigers as they raced out to a 5-0 lead and a 10-6 lead early in the set, forcing UC Irvine to use both of their timeouts in the set, a feat that would leave the team helpless to stop a Tiger rally late in the set.  After closing to within two points at 20-18, the Anteaters could only watch as the Tigers put them away with a 5-2 run at the end of the game headlined by junior Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) who tallied two of her five set kills in the final three Tiger points.

For the match the Tigers saw three hitters reach double figure kill totals led by Engelhardts' match-high 15 kills.  Right behind the junior was Gibson who tallied her second straight double-double as she posted 12 kills ad 13 digs while also adding three service aces and six blocks, five of which came in the first two sets.  Tomaszewska rebounded from a tough pair of previous matches to post 10 kills and just three errors on 23 attempts while also adding two blocks while Vaysburg finished the evening with six kills and eight blocks.  Guiding the Tigers throughout the night was senior libero Dancyne Kama (Hilo, Hawaiia) who had 22 digs and freshman setter Pihanakealoha Kea (Honolulu, Hawaii) who posted her first career double-double as she tallied a career-best 42 assists and 14 digs.

The Anteaters were paced by Kari Pestolesi and Juliane Piggott who each finished the night with 14 kills.  Pestoles tallied a double-double on the night as she also added 10 digs.  Kristin Winkler, the Anteaters' libero, posted a match-high 30 digs from the back row.

Pacific will head back out on the road for a pair of conference matches beginning with a match against Long Beach State in Long Beach, Calif. on Friday, November 6.  The match is scheduled for 7:00 pm.