Jan. 6, 2011

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - Opening up the new season the Pacific men's volleyball team got off on the right foot as the Tigers swept the visiting Hope International Royals on Thursday, January 6 at the Alex G. Spanos Center. The Tigers were led in the match by sophomore Taylor Hughes who posted a match-high 15 kills in the victory.

Set scores for the match were: 25-20, 25-17, 25-21.

The Tigers claimed the first point of the year off the hand of Hughes before Pacific trading rallies and points with the Royals. Trailing 9-10 an attack error by Hope International's Mana Guerreiro evened things up at 10-10. A kill by Jordan Doolittle put Pacific back behind 11-10. Pacific then scored 5 unanswered points to move ahead 15-11. The two oppositions then traded points up until Junior Florian Gornik (Schwechat, Austria) put down a strike to give the Tigers a 20-18 edge. Pacific would only give up two more points the rest of the way to end the first set of the season on another Gornik kill and put it away 25-20.

In set two the Tigers fell behind 9-4 and head coach Joe Wortmann quickly called a timeout to help his squad regroup. Out of the break Pacific came swinging and off two Hugheskills and two Gornik kills coupled with shaky ball handling by the Royals the Tigers would knot things up at 13 a piece. Contributions from Junior Nicolaas Schenk (Kamuela, Hawaii), Hughes and junior Sean Daley (Moorpark, Calif.) then gave Pacific a 20-17 advantage. Juniors Chaz Hindsley (Northfield, Ill.) and Dylan Walker (La Canada, Calif.) also got into the scoring column the rest of the way as the Tigers went on to route the Royals 25-17.

Once again in the early stages of set three the Tigers fell behind, this time 5-1. Kills by Schenk, Hughes and Daley led the way to the Tigers retaking the advantage 10-9. Schenk would contribute three more kills on the way to a 19-16 Tiger lead. Multiple attack errors and clever play by Hughes and Hindsley led the Tigers the rest of the way. A final kill by Hughes would give Pacific the last point they needed to claim its first match of the year.

After the match Wortmann said, "it's good to win but we have a ways to go." Happy with the level of play from his lineup and the way they competed Wortmann noted that they made some errors that will need to be corrected as the competition on the schedule gets heftier.

The Tigers improve to 1-0 while the loss for the Royals was their first of the season as they dropped to 2-1. The Tigers are next in action again against the Hope International Royals on Friday, January 7.