Stockton, Calif. - Shaking off recent struggles, the Pacific women's volleyball team found its offense on Thursday night as the Tigers downed San Francisco, 3-1, to snap a six-match skid. The win for the Tigers bumped their record to 12-14 overall and 5-10 in the WCC while the Dons fell to 11-14 overall and 7-8 in conference play. 

Set scores for the match were: 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-22.

Breaking the curse that began with a five-set loss at San Francisco to end the first half of conference play, Pacific's offense came alive to right the ship and lead the Tigers to victory. For the match, the Tigers hit a conference high .390 (68-13-141) against the Dons' defense, the second highest total for Pacific on the year. Pacific's attack was led by its senior Megan Birch as the fourth-year outside tallied a season-best 19 kills on 41 swings while hitting .415. For Birch, the 19th kill proved to be the biggest of the match as she slammed home the final point of the night to give the Tigers' the victory.

Pacific's night was not without its ups-and-downs, however, as the Tigers were forced to play from behind for the seventh-straight match after dropping the opening set. In the lone win of the night for the Dons, the Tigers allowed San Francisco to score the final three points of the frame against what was otherwise a stout defensive effort.Despite the opening set loss, the Tigers regrouped to take control of the match.

In set two, the Dons took an early 6-4 lead in the second set, before the Tigers rallied around a pair of kills from Kat Schulz in a 9-3 stretch to pull ahead 12-9. San Francisco pulled back even at 15-15, but the Tigers scored five straight off of strong serving from Mia Feiner to take a 20-15 lead. Feiner had two aces, while Katy Tagart had a kill and a block in the run. The Dons scored three straight of their own thanks to a couple of Tiger errors, but Pacific was able to close it out 25-20.Pacific used a fast start in the third set and pulled away late to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Schulz and Gillian Howard each had kills as the Tigers took a 4-0 lead. USF came back with a 6-2 spurt to even it up at 6-6. Birch ended the run with two straight kills to give momentum back to the Tigers. Birch finished the set with eight kills in 11 swings with no errors. She paced a Pacific attack that had 19 kills with no errors in 33 attacks. The Tigers finished the set with five of the last six points.

The fourth set ended up being close as the pesky Dons would not go quietly despite the Tigers opening up a 19-10 lead. Down nine, the Dons responded with four straight points to close the gap and got as close as three (21-18), but Pacific was able to finish off the Dons with a 25-22 win. Howard ended up with five kills in six swings without an error in the set, adding a pair of blocks while Birch put an exclamation point on her night with the final kill.

Outside of Birch, Howard was also at her best once again against the Dons as the junior posted a season-best 14 kills on .480 hitting while tallying a match-best nine blocks. Schulz finished right ahead of Howard with 15 kills and added 13 digs to grab her fifth double-double of the season. Defensively, Wilk completed her night with five blocks and 10 digs to go along with eight kills while freshman Lexi Elman led the way with 17 digs.

The Dons were led by Katarina Pilepic with 16 kills while Malina Terrell finished with 15 kills on .448 hitting. Valentina Zaloznik ended her night with eight kills and a team-best five blocks.

Pacific has a chance to make it two straight at home on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 1:00 pm as the Tigers welcome to the Spanos Center the Santa Clara Broncos. The day is Military Appreciation Day for the Tigers as all military service men and women receive free admittance to the match.