Nov. 13, 2009
Box Score
Stockton, Calif. - Kicking off a three-match home stand to finish the 2009 season, the Pacific women's volleyball team stumbled against Cal Poly on Friday, November 13, dropping a five set decision to the Mustangs in the Alex G. Spanos Center. With the loss the Tigers fell to 16-10 overall and 6-8 in the Big West while the Mustangs improved to 8-19 overall and 4-10 in the conference.
Set scores for the match were: 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-7.
Playing their sixth five-set match of the conference season, the Tigers again struggled to find their offensive rhythm in the shortened fifth set of the match, dropping to 1-5 in five-set matches on the year. In the fifth set, the Mustangs took control of the set and the match midway through the set as they used a 6-3 run against the Tigers when the score was tied 4-4 to put Pacific in a three point hole it would struggle to get out of. Pressing to save themselves in the match, the Tigers could not get out of their own way late in the fifth set, committing three straight attacking errors in the final five points of the match help the Mustangs close out the set and the match with a 5-0 run.
Prior to falling in the fifth set, the Mustangs and the Tigers traded sets through the first four sets of the match with the Mustangs winning sets one and three before Pacific answered back with wins in the second and fourth sets.
To open the match, it was the Mustangs who took control of the first set midway through as they used a 5-0 run against teh Tigers to erase a 15-14 lead by Pacific and take a 19-15 lead of their own. During the run Jennifer Keddy posted a pair of kills to lead the Mustangs' rally while Pacifi also committed a pair of attacking errors to kick start the first two points of the run. With the lead, the Mustangs held off a late push by Pacific to take the set. In the set, senior Mallori Gibson (Bakersfield, Calif.) did everything she could to try to propel the Tigers to the opening set win as she tallied a set-high seven kills on 15 swings with just one error.
Down one set, the Tigers rebounded in the second set with a dominating performance in the middle by senior Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) who tallied five of her career-high 10 kills in the set to lead the Tigers. The big swing in the set came late for the Tigers as they used a 9-0 run against the Mustangs to break open tied contest into a seven point lead at 23-16. Junior Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) kicked off the run capitalizing on a set from freshman Pihanakealoha Kea (Honolulu, Hawaii) as the Tigers went up 16-15.
From behind the service line, Englehardt helped seal the set for Pacific when the Tigers rode a 9-0 scoring run until 23-26.Englehardt tallied a pair of aces in the nine points while serving the Mustangs' out of their offensive system to help Pacific's defense.
During Englehardt's final serve of the run, Cal Poly sideded out off a kill from Jennifer Keddy to try and bring the Mustangs back in the set at 23-17. Both teams swapped side outs, as Gibson tried her hand at taking the reigns in the match when senior Dancyne Kama (Hilo, Hawaii) fed her what would prove to the kill that gave Pacific its set point at 24-17. Keddy would not let the set go for the Mustangs, however, as she laid down another kill to keep Cal Poly in it at 24-18.
Sophomore Rebekah Torres (Wahiawa, Hawaii) had enough, as she put a screeching stop to the Mustangs when Kea dealt her a set that Torres slammed down to win Pacific's first set, 25-18.
Turning the momentum back on the Tigers out of the break, Cal Poly took control of the third after the lead switched hands multiple times up until 14-13 from which the Mustangs never looked back. Cal Poly initiated a seven-point run that pushed them to a lopsided 20-13 advantage. The Mustangs kept Pacific at bay and used the large run to get to 25 first, with a final score of 25-21 that put the Mustangs up two sets to one.
Backed against a wall, the Tigers momentarily staved off the match loss in the fourth set. Out of the gate, the Tigers jumped out quickly on the Mustangs and ran the score up to 7-2 after a kill from senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Marklowice, Poland), who finished the night wih 10 kills. But, again, Cal Poly inched back in and cut the deficit before knotting the score back up at 13-13. Pacific kept at least a one-point cushion from 14-13 when Engelhardt laid down another kill in the set to give the Tigers their final lead in the set. Both teams continued siding out, with Pacific ahead until the Tigers reached 20 first, after a slew of attack errors on Cal Poly's side of the net. Fittingly, the Mustangs made a fatal error at set-point for the Tigers, with the score 24-21, as an attack error by Holly Franks gave Pacific the victory in the set, 25-21.
Gibson led all players with 19 kills and eight digs on the night.
Pacific returns to action on Saturday, November 14, when it hosts UC Santa Barbara. The match kicks off at 7 p.m. from the Spanos Center.
