Stockton, Calif. – With the new era upon them, the Pacific women's volleyball team picked up their first-ever West Coast Conference victory as the Tigers' downed Gonzaga, 3-1, on Thursday, Sept. 19. The win for Pacific moved its record to 8-4 overall and 1-0 in the WCC while the Bulldogs fell to 4-6 on the season and 0-1 in conference play.

Set scores for the match were: 22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-18.

For the first time in their storied history the Tigers scored a point in a league that was not the Big West as the honor went to senior Megan Birch who rolled a shot over the top for Pacific's first-ever point as members of the WCC. Pacific started hot but cooled midway through the set as the Bulldog block locked down the left side of the Tigers' attack with six blocks. That lockdown would prove too much for the Tigers to overcome despite five kills out of sophomore Kat Schulz on the right side. Schulz's five was overmatched by Savannah Blinn, the Bulldogs' sophomore outside, who tallied eight kills on 12 swings in the frame.

Opening the second set, the Zags used a 5-0 early to put the Tigers into scramble mode almost immediately. Trailing by six at 10-4, Pacific used a 9-3 run to climb back into the set and with it the match. Leading the way was senior Jennifer Sanders as the middle blocker shook off a rough first set to come alive in the second. Sanders took advantage of poor passing by the Bulldogs to clean up the mess at the net for a pair of kills and solo blocks. Additionally, the Tigers got their block rolling against the Zags in the set as Pacific took control of the pins, just as the Bulldogs had done in the opener. Pacific would finally put away the pesky Bulldogs by taking the final three points to capture their first set victory as members of the WCC.

Behind a 5-0 run midway through set three at 15-14 the Tigers busted the tipping point set wide open to give themselves a comfortable advantage it would need to take firm control of the match. During the run, the Tigers used an array of kills and blocks to do their damage and pull away. The Tigers closed out the set behind their junior middle Gillian Howard whose kill gave Pacific the set point and blocking presence forced an error for the victory.

After finding themselves in a fight over the first three sets of the evening, the Tigers turned what would be the final set of the night into a laugher as Pacific cruised out to a quick 10-4 lead and never looked back. The Tigers pushed their lead to as much as eight on three different occasions before settling for the seven-point win and the match. 

Building throughout the night, freshman Lexi Elman put together her fourth double-double performance of the season and second-straight at the Spanos Center to lead Pacific. The first-year outside posted 12 kills on 33 attacks while adding 11 digs. Offensively, Schulz put her name at the top of the kills list with a team-high 14 kills on .286 hitting. She also added nine digs as Pacific posted 55 digs overall with both sophomore Mia Feiner and freshman Alicja Wilk each posted double digits digs in the match along side of Elman. Wilk led the way with a career-best 12 digs playing primarily along the back row. Senior Megan Birch added 10 kills to round out Pacific's scoring on the night.

The big change for the Tigers that turned the night was their uptick in blocking after a slow start in set one. After recording just two blocks in the opening frame, Pacific grabbed 11 more over the final three sets led by Howards' eight and sophomore Kimmy Whitson's five. Additionally, not to be left out, Wilk made her way to the net as a blocking sub and proceeded to add three blocks to the Tigers' totals. As a team, the Tigers held the Zags to just .105 hitting as Pacific clamped down on Blinn over the final three sets to hold the big outside to 16 kills after her hot start that featured eight in the opening frame. 

The Tigers are back in action on Saturday, Sept. 21 with a day match against Portland as they look to make it two-in-a-row in the WCC to start the conference season.