STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific volleyball team (4-2) will put its four-game win streak on the line this weekend against a challenging field at the Ram Volleyball Invitational hosted by Colorado State. Two of the three teams, #16 Baylor and Bowling Green, were 2022 NCAA Tournament teams.
After capturing the EWU Invitational last weekend with a 3-0 record, Pacific will carry a four-match win streak into the weekend. Pacific also knocked off UC Davis in the home opener last Tuesday to account for a 4-0 week. Tournament MVP
Biamba Kabengele was named WCC Player of the Week after recording 51 kills over the four games. She tops the team in kills per game at 3.59.
Senior
Alexa Edwards, who is second on the team in 3.05 kills per set, and junior setter
Jenna Heller were also named to the EWU all-tournament team.
Bowling Green, the preseason pick to win the Mid-American Conference, is off to a strong start with its two losses coming to #14 Ohio State and Texas A&M. The BGSU wins are over ETSU, Northern Kentucky, Loyola Chicago and Wright State. The Falcons were 22-10 in 2022, including a 15-3 MAC record. The Falcons will play the host Rams on Thursday before matching up with Pacific.
On Saturday, the Tigers will match up with the host Rams (3-3), a team that knocked off #10 Kentucky in its opener and has a win over Michigan. Colorado State also has a win over Central Arkansas in its most recent outing. The losses are to #21 Arkansas, #3 Stanford and Northern Colorado. The Rams were selected third in the Mountain West preseason poll behind Utah State and UNLV. Colorado State did have three first-place votes. The Saturday match will be played at 1:30 p.m. MT/12:30 p.m. PT.
The Tigers will wrap up the weekend with a contest against #16 Baylor (1-2) at 10 a.m. MT/9 a.m. PT on Sunday. Ranked third in the Big 12 preseason poll behind Texas and BYU, Baylor dropped two matches on its opening weekend to #2 Wisconsin and #7 Minnesota before beating #18 Rice last week.
Following the weekend, the Tigers will return home to host the Central Cal Challenge in another three-day event, facing Fresno State (2-3) on Thursday, CSU Bakersfield (3-3) on Friday and Sacramento State (5-1) on Sunday. In the inaugural version of the tournament last year, Pacific recorded a 3-0 record, including narrow 3-2 wins over CSU Bakersfield and Fresno State.
