San Francisco, Calif. - Closing out the 2014 regular season, the Tigers put a stamp on their postseason resume with a 3-1 win at San Francisco on Tuesday, Nov. 25. The win secured Pacific's standing in second place in the WCC as the Tigers finished the year 13-5 in conference action and 24-7 overall. The Dons ended the year 5-13 in WCC action and 12-17 on the year.

Set scores for the match were: 25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 25-21.

Coming off their best blocking match of the season, the Tigers picked up where they left off as Pacific dominated the net early against the Dons to run out to a 10-5 lead. Coming up with four early blocks, the Tigers frustrated the Don hitters, forcing them into a game of touch volleyball in which they attempted to dump over the block. In addition to the block, Pacific's offense was up to the task as well as the Tigers pushed their lead to six twice and as late as 22-16 as they refused to make a hitting mistake. However, errors in the service game allowed the Dons to close the gap late, but Pacific's block was too much as the Tigers put a stop to the comeback hopes. Pacific was led by sophomore Alicja Wilk who posted four kills on just five swings and tallied three of the Tigers' season-best 7.5 blocks in the frame.

Shaking off a slow start to the second set, the Tigers went on a 6-0 run early against the Dons to put USF behind 10-5 for the second-straight set. Leading the charge was the reigning WCC Player of the Week, senior Gillian Howard, who came up with four-straight kills before USF could answer and momentarily stop the runaway train that was the Tigers. The stoppage was only temporary however as Pacific continued to press and refused to let the Dons work their way back into the set. Junior Kat Schulz kept the offense hot for the Tigers with Howard rotated out as the lefty came up with four kills and eight digs to guide the way. Howard finished the set with five kills and another block as Pacific ran out to a 2-0 advantage.

An early 7-1 run gave the Don's their biggest lead of the night at 15-9 as the Tigers could not stop the Dons' attack which found its first rhythm of the match against Pacific's defense. Despite the deficit, the Tigers were undaunted as they came up with another block to stop the bleeding and reinforcements arrived to lead the charge back. Running off seven of the next 10 points, the Tigers worked their way back into the set eventually tying the contest at 18-18. The 18-18 tie would be as close as Pacific would come in the set as a pair of controversial calls changed the momentum of the set allowing the Dons to push back ahead and hold on for their first set win over the Tigers in 2014.

Going back to what has been their rock to get themselves back on track, Pacific looked towards Howard to right the ship as the senior came up with a block and a pair of kills to put Pacific slightly ahead before rotating out for the first time. They would hold a lead until midway through the set when the Dons caught fire, using a 5-0 run to capture an 18-14 lead. Falling back on what they do best, the Tigers turned to their defense to fight out of the hole as Wilk put on a blocking clinic to help the Tigers run off eight-straight points to take a 23-19 lead. Pacific would complete the comeback and finish off the match three sets to one.

Defensively, the Tigers matched their season-best blocking performance with 18.0 in the contest as Wilk led the effort with a career-best nine. Right behind the sophomore was Howard with seven while senior Katy Tagart added six and sophomore Lexi Elman tied high career high with five. When balls got by the block Schulz led the back line with 21 digs, one off of her career best of 22 in a match, while freshman Katrin Gotterba added 16 and Elman tallied 10.

The 21 digs helped Schulz finish off her 14th double-double on the year and fifth-straight to end the regular season as she ended tied for the match lead with 15 kills. Alongside of Schulz was Howard who continued her tear through the WCC with 15 kills on .538 hitting, making her lone error of the match on her final swing. Wilk added eight kills on .316 hitting to go along with her blocking. 

Pacific outhit the Dons .234-to-.112 as the Tigers went 55-19-154 while USF tallied a line of 49-31-161.

For the Dons, Valentina Zaloznik paced the attack as the senior middle came up with 14 kills on .243 hitting to finish her collegiate career. She added 12 digs for good measure as the Dons tallied 74 digs in the match led by Kim Gutierrez' 17. Alongside of Zaloznik, Jessica Gaffney and Oluma Okaro each posted 12 kills.

The Tigers will now sit and wait as their postseason fate is now out of their hands and in the hands of the NCAA selection committee. Pacific will find out if it has returned to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, Nov. 30 when the field of 64 is announced live on ESPNU. The Tigers look to return to the tournament for the first time since 2004.