Palo Alto, Calif. - In a battle of two top-25 teams, the No. 24 ranked Tigers came up short on the road at No. 8 Stanford, falling in straight sets at Maples Pavilion on Friday, Sept. 18. The loss for the Tigers' snapped a seven-match winning streak and dropped Pacific to 8-2 on the season. The Cardinal improved to 5-2 on the year and 3-0 at home. 

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

After controlling much of the opening set with their speed and precision, the Tigers hit a rough patch in the middle of the set allowing the Cardinal to turn the opener around and steal away the set victory. Leading 15-12, the Tigers saw their momentum halted due to the media timeout at 15 points, a free timeout that paid immediate dividends for the Cardinal who rolled off three-straight points and five of the next seven to take their first lead of evening. The Tiger would claw their way back into the set behind junior Lexi Elman, even taking back the lead again at 21-20, but it would not be enough as the Cardinal outsprinted Pacific late to steal away the set victory. The Cardinal's size played a part in their rally as Stanford came up with four blocks and spread the ball around offensively to go up 1-0. 

Falling behind early in the second set, the Tigers were able to play their way back into the frame on the arm of Elman as the junior caught fire with six kills on just eight early swings to give Pacific its first lead at 14-13. The lead, however, would be short-lived for the Tigers as the Cardinal turned it all around again with another midset run, this time a 6-1 rally that put Pacific behind by four at 19-15. With the Tigers in catchup mode, the Cardinal were able to take advantage of Pacific's rotations with Elman in the backrow to pull away. Down four, the Tigers closed the gap to within two on kills by sophomore Maycie LaBass and senior Kimmy Whitson, but the rally would fall short as the Cardinal again held off Pacific late to take the 2-0 advantage into the break. In total, Stanford was able to come up with a 12-4 run to close out the Tigers in the set, scoring 11 of the 12 points with Elman out of the front row where she would get just two more swings. For the Cardinal, it was their freshman Hayley Hudson who sparked the offense as she produced five kills on nine attacks pushing Stanford to .423 hitting in the set.

Back at it after the 10-min break, the Cardinal asserted their size once again at the net, matching their first two sets with four early blocks. Building a lead as much as five at 14-9, the Cardinal held off Tigers using a nearly flawless attack. Pacific would close the gap to within three multiple times late in the frame, but each time the Tigers threatened the Cardinal had an answer. Stanford would finish the set with five total blocks in the set and 13 overall for the match. 

Overall, Stanford became the first team to hit over .300 against the Tigers in over 45 matches after posting a .322 hitting percentage. The last team to hit over .300 against the Tigers was Santa Clara on Nov. 16, 2013 in a five-set match at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Offensively, Hodson finished her night with 14 kills on .333 hitting to lead the Cardinal attack.

Hodson's kills balanced out the effort by Elman as the Tiger outside tied the Cardinal freshman for the match-high of 14 kills. She would add six digs and two blocks to go along with two aces. 

Defensively, the Tigers were led by Katrin Gotterba who came up with a match-high 14 digs in the three-set match while LaBass chipped in nine digs to go along with eight kills. 

Stanford's Merete Lutz led the Cardinal block with seven in the match as the 6-8 middle also posted five kills.

Pacific was without the services of their 6-4 senior in the middle as Holland Crenshaw sat out the night due to injury.

The Tigers are back in action tomorrow night when they head to Berkeley to take on Cal at Haas Pavilion. The match is scheduled for 7:00 pm and is a rematch of the opening match from the 2014 Molten Classic when Pacific downed the Bears in 3-0 en route to earning the tournament title.