Oct. 26, 2007

Box Score

San Luis Obispo, Calif. - Despite a strong start, the Pacific women's volleyball suffered a 3-1 loss to No. 24 Cal Poly on Friday, Oct. 27.

With the loss the Tigers dropped to 13-6 on the season and 6-4 in the Big West Conference, while Cal Poly moved to 15-7 overall and 9-1 in conference play.

Game scores for the match were: 30-24, 23-30, 21-30, 25-30.

Execution was the deciding factor in each game between the two forces. Pacific delivered an early blow to the Mustangs with a 30-24 win in game one as the Tigers hit a match-high .302 in the first frame. Trailing 22-20 in the first game, the Tigers strung together nine of the next ten points to build a 29-23 lead. Senior Johanna Hilbers (Omaha, Neb.) got Pacific rolling with two kills and a block with freshman Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) on three consecutive points. With Pacific in front 23-22, Engelhardt dominated play with four kills in the next six points. The Tigers claimed the game, 30-24, by forcing Cal Poly's Ali Waller into an attacking error.

Unfortunately the 24th ranked Mustangs rallied behind their home crowd and began to out-execute the Tigers the rest of the way.

Cal Poly held Pacific to a .122 hitting percentage the rest of the night, meanwhile, the Mustangs hit .273 with 53 kills and just 14 errors on 143 attempts the rest of the way as the Mustangs rallied for a 3-1 win.

Hilbers led the Tigers with 14 kills in the match, while Engelhardt finished with 13 kills and 14 digs for her eighth double-double of the season.

Kylie Atherstone led Cal Poly with a match-high 26 kills and a .379 hitting percentage.

Pacific returns to action tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 27 as the Tigers continue the two-match road trip in Santa Barbara, Calif. as Pacific takes on UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. in the Thunderdoom.