Sept. 7, 2007

Box Score

Portland, Ore. - Despite a slow start, the Pacific women's volleyball team earned their second sweep of the season with a 3-0 win over UTEP in the first match of the Nike Invitational in Portland, Ore. on Friday, Sept. 7.

Game scores for the match were; 30-26, 30-20 and 30-20.

The win moved the Tigers to 2-2 on the season, while UTEP fell to 6-2.

Trailing 24-19 in the first game, the Tigers found their rhythm as a team as Pacific scored 11 of the final 13 points to take game one, 30-26. Sophomore Meagan MimMack (Upland, Calif.) got the Tigers going in right direction with her fifth kill of the game to make it 24-20. Junior Kara Uhl (Cypress, Calif.) followed with a critical ace, then sophomore Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) pounded down her first kill of the match to pull the Tigers within two points at 24-22 and force UTEP head coach Ken Murphy to call a timeout.

Following the Miners' timeout, the two teams traded service errors followed by kills to make it 26-24 in favor of UTEP. Following a kill from sophomore Alexa Anderson (Los Gatos, Calif.), the Tigers held the serve and sent freshman Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany) to the service line.

On Engelhardt's first serve, senior Johanna Hilbers (Omaha, Neb.) converted the slide play to make it a one point game. The following play, Pacific forced UTEP's Keisha Hyman-Gifth to hit directly into a double block of Hilbers and Anderson to tie the game at 26-26. On the next point, the Tigers went back to the slide and Hilbers delivered once again to give Pacific a 27-26 lead.

Following another timeout from UTEP, the Tigers put the game away behind two kills from Anderson sandwiched around an ace from Engelhardt.

The momentum of Pacific's 30-26 win in game one carried into the second game as the Tigers built a lead as large as 28-15 and went on to earn a 30-20 win in game two.

Pacific saved their best effort for the final game as the Tigers posted a match-high .395 hitting percentage in the third game to earn the sweep, 30-20. The Tigers notched 17 kills in the third game, while committing only two errors on 38 swings. UTEP, meanwhile, collected 13 kills and committed 11 errors for a .038 hitting percentage.

Anderson led the Tigers as she posted her first double-double of the season with 11 kills and 17 digs. Hilbers finished the match with 10 kills and a match-high .474 hitting percentage. Defensively four Tigers finished with double digit digs, led by 18 from senior Julie Magud (Stockton, Calif.). Junior Shannon Krug (Colordao Springs, Colo.) also earned her first double-double as a Tiger with 39 assists and 10 digs.

Amy Sanders led the way for UTEP with 11 digs, while libero Elsa Reyes delivered a match-high 19 digs.

The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 8 as Pacific concludes action at the Nike Invitational with two matches. The Tigers' first match of the day is scheduled at 10 a.m. as Pacific faces Portland State. The Tigers also play in the final match of the tournament, when Pacific faces tournament host Portland at 8 p.m.