STOCKTON, Calif. – The Pacific volleyball program remains in the friendly confines of the Alex G. Spanos Center for both matches this week, bringing in Saint Mary's on Thursday at 6 p.m. before welcoming San Francisco on Saturday at 7 p.m. to cap the Homecoming festivities.

The Tigers (7-8, 1-3 WCC) will look to build on last week's home opening win, going against one of the three teams currently winless in conference play in Saint Mary's (2-13, 0-4 WCC). While
Thursday's match between Pacific and Saint Mary's will be the first played in Stockton since 2023, home bouts for Pacific have favored the Tigers 9-5 historically. To continue that trend, Pacific will lean on a stingy defense that leads the conference in both opponent hitting percentage against and digs per set.

In the middle of that defense is graduate Valentina Varani, who is on pace to be the first Tiger to rank in the top ten for blocks per set since Ashlyn Fleming in 2017. Varani enters the weekend ranked fourth in blocks per set and has totaled five or more total blocks in eight of 15 matches this season.

The Gaels defense, by contrast, sports the highest opponent hitting percentage in the conference and the fewest digs per set. This should give ample opportunity to a Tigers attack that saw freshman Mazi Smith post a career-high in kills last Thursday and redshirt freshman Mila Stojakovic reach double digit kills for the second time in her career.

Saturday's match against San Francisco (2-12, 0-4 WCC) has a similar script where the Dons have the second highest opponent hitting percentage but do rank seventh in digs per set. Offensively, San Francisco is ranked eighth in hitting percentage but second to last in kills per set.

This means senior Logan Blutreich will have opportunity to build on the momentum of last week, which saw her post a career-best three solo blocks in the win over LMU and has at least one solo block in each of the last five contests. Blutreich is also finding her rhythm offensively again as her 14 kills last was her best two-game stretch since posting double digit kills against Idaho State and Mercer during the third and fourth matches of the season.

As a result of the strong play on the block, any ball that did get past Varani or Blutreich found the waiting arms of graduate Olivia Keller, freshman Bella Gutierrez, senior Jayhlin Swain, sophomore Alessia Couchond or Mila Stojakovic, as each of the five student-athletes had double digit digs last week.

All-time against San Francisco, Pacific is 37-6 with a 17-2 record at home. Both matches this week will be streamed on ESPN+.

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Tickets for upcoming events can be purchased through the PacificTigers.com tickets tab, or by calling the Box Office at 209-946-2474.  Groups of 10 or more are eligible for a group discount and exclusive fan experiences.
 
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