Sept. 11, 2009

Box Score

Oxford, Ohio - Facing Troy in their first match of the Miami Best Western Invitational hosted by Miami (OH), the Pacific women's volleyball team remained perfect on the road with a 3-1 win on Friday, September 11. The victory was the Tigers' fourth straight on the road to start the season and improved Pacific to 5-1 on the year while the Trojans fell to 3-5 overall.

Set scores for the match were: 25-18, 31-29, 25-27, 25-22.

Looking for their second tournament championship of the 2009 season, the Tigers got off to a good start in the quest in the opening match of the invitational as they downed the Trojans with relative ease, winning with a seven point cushion. Pacific's attack was at its best early on as the Tigers hit an impressive .500, spreading the ball around the offense to great success.

The outside attack was on point for the Tigers as senior Mallori Gibson (Bakersfield, Calif.), junior Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) and sophomore Rebekah Torres (Wahiawa, Hawaii) teamed for 12 kills and just one error on 18 swings.  With the outsides pulling off easy swings, the middle of the Tigers' offense also was opened for senior Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) as she dropped in four kills to go along with the Tigers' lone block of the set.

The quick start for the Tigers would not last, however, as the Trojans stormed back in set two, putting Pacific on its heels and controlling much of the set at the net through their senior middle blocker, Meghan Gilroy. Gilroy had her best set of the match in set two, tallying eight kills on 16 swings with just two errors. A battle back-and-forth from the beginning, their were 13 ties in the set and eight lead changes with Troy holding an early four point lead at 5-1, the largest lead of the set for either team.

Locked in a battle, Pacific staved off five set points in the set to overcome the Trojan attack and steal set two. After leading 22-20 late in the set, the Tigers saw the Trojans roll off four straight points to take a 24-22 lead and put Pacific on the brink of the set two loss. Battling back, Pacific used their prowess behind the service line to even the score, picking up an ace off the arm of Engelhardt before setting up an attack error with another well placed attack. In the final 12 points of the set, the Tigers would add two more aces to bring their total to five and their match total to six overall. Additionally, the Tigers took advantage of their height at the net defensively to score three blocks in the set, led by Vaysburg who tallied a solo block and a pair of assisted blocks to push her total to four blocks in the match.

Up two sets to none, the Tigers found themselves again locked in a fight with the Trojans in the third set of the night as Pacific fell behind 15-10 midway through the set before battling back to tie the set at 22-22. Again, the Tigers' held off a final push by the Trojans, setting down a pair of set points before finally succumbing to Troy on their third set point at 26-25, falling 27-25. Troy took advantage of the Tigers' lack of rhythm in the set offensively to get back into the match as Pacific committed five errors, their second straight five error set.

With the Trojans within one set, the Tigers refocused their efforts at the net both offensively and defensively as Pacific hit .275 with 17 kills in the fourth and what would be the final set, led by Engelhardt's set-high six kills. More importantly, Pacific got back to its balanced attack with all five attackers on the court scoring at least two kills in the set. The balanced attack allowed the Tigers to push out to a quick four point lead early on. After seeing that lead collapse to a 12-12 tie, the Tigers put together an 8-3 run to secure a 20-15 lead that they would not let the Trojans come back from. During the run, Engelhardt posted three of her six kills while defensively, Vaysburg stifled the Trojan attack with a pair of solo blocks.

For the match, the Tigers posted 63 kills on 163 swings and 25 errors for a .233 hitting percentage. Gibson posted a team-high 18 kills while Torres and Engelhardt tallied 16 and 14 kills, respectively. For Vaysburg, the senior middle tallied eight kills while also totaling seven blocks including a career-high four solo efforts. Behind the service line the Tigers posted 12 aces with senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Maklowice, Poland) posting a season-best four. Serving proved the ultimate factor in the match as the Tigers' 12 aces combined with 13 Trojan service errors to give Pacific 25 points in the match.

The Trojans were led by Gilroy on the night as she posted a match-high 21 kills and just six errors in 50 swings. Defensively, Troy also added 10 total blocks on the night with Gilroy tallying six, including two solo efforts.

Pacific will be back in action on Saturday, September 12, at 12:00 pm ET as the Tigers take on St. John's in their second match of the invitational. They close the tournament with a match against Miami (OH) at 7:00 pm.