April 7, 2011

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Final Stats

Despite being outhit by the Gauchos .236 to .187 the No. 15 Pacific Men's Volleyball defeated No. 6 UC Santa Barbara in five sets in Santa Barbara on Thursday, April 7. Set scores were 20-25, 25-23, 25-23, 14-25, 15-13.

Both team accounted for 14 blocks respectively in the match while UCSB recorded 57 kills compared to Pacific's 51.

It was the first match Pacific started redshirt sophomore Taylor Hughes (Fallbrook, Calif.) at outside hitter. He responded by getting 25 kills and hitting .396.

Hughes had more than half of his team's kills as the Tigers handed the Gauchos their second straight loss.

UCSB jumped out to a 1-0 lead taking the first set 25-20 while hitting .188. Pacific hit .000 in the first frame. P>The Tigers held on for victories in both the second and third sets by scores of 25-23 in each. In the second set, the Tigers trailed 23-21 before sparking a four point run to take the frame.

The third set was all knotted at 21 before the Tigers used a 4-2 run capped off by a cross court kill by junior Florian Gornik (Schwechat, Austria) to claim the set 25-23.

Pacific trailed 10-4 in the fourth frame after giving up 6 unanswered points. The Tigers never closed the gap to less than four the rest of the way as UCSB held on for 25-14 win in the set.

The Gauchos jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the final set, but a 5-1 run by the Tigers put them up in the set 5-3. UCSB was able to tie the score at the 5 and 7 mark, but The Tigers rallied on consecutive attack errors by UCSB and Pacific never looked back claiming the frame on a Hughes kill set up perfectly by sophomore Patrick Tunnell (Tucson, Ariz.)

With the win Pacific improved to 11-17 (5-15 MPSF). UCSB fell to 13-12 (10-9 MPSF)

Pacific is next in action on Friday, April 8 at No.7 UCLA.