Oct. 17, 2009

Box Score

San Luis Obispo, Calif. - Down two sets to none, the Pacific women's volleyball team battled back to take a 3-2 win over Cal Poly on Saturday, October 17 at Mott Gym. The win for the Tigers improved the team to 15-4 overall and 5-3 in the conference while the Mustangs fell to 6-15 overall and 2-6 in the Big West.

Set scores for the match were: 23-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 15-11.

Playing in their second five-set match of the weekend, this time against the Mustangs, the Tigers came up big with an impressive comeback that culminated with the 15-11 win in the fifth and final set of the match. Playing from behind from the opening serve on, the Tigers fought their way back from what looked like to be an insurmountable deficit to capture the match against the Mustangs on the road.

For the first two sets of the night, the Tigers had no answer for Cal Poly as the Mustangs scored at will from multiple spots on the floor while Pacific struggled to find the offense that had scored them 14 victories coming into the match. In the opening set, the Mustangs took advantage of the Tigers lack of offense to jump out to a 9-2 lead to take the early advantage and early command of the match. Surprisingly for the Tigers, the service game proved to be the early difference in the set as the Mustangs posted a pair of service aces against Pacific while on other serves the Tigers were taken out of their offensive system, resulting in poor attacking chances. Additionally, Cal Poly's service game led to easy chances at the net resulting in a hitting percentage over .800 through the first half of the first set.

Despite the big deficit early, the Tigers showed some signs of life late in the first set as they battled back to within one point at 23-22, pulling ahead of the Mustangs in the hitting department in the final few points of the set before dropping two of the final three points to suffer the opening set loss.

While the battle back into the first set showed a glimpse of what was in store for the Tigers later in the match it did not help them much in the second set as an evenly matched set turned to the Mustangs in the sets final points. Leading throughout the entire set, the Tigers suffered through an unexpected turn of events in the final three points of the set, dropping all three to the Mustangs to fall 25-23 for the second straight set. The Tigers were not without some highlights in the first two sets as sophomore Rebekah Torres (Wahiawa, Hawaii) and senior Natalia Tomaszewska (Marklowice, Poland) were nearly perfect through sets one and two as Torres posted seven kills in nine attacks while Tomaszewska had four kills in five swings.

Down in a huge hole at two sets to none, the Tigers refused to hang their heads and fall quietly at the hands of the Mustangs as Pacific came out of the media break determined to get back in the match and take home the hard fought road victory. The first step for the Tigers was to win the third set and force a fourth set, a feat they would accomplish with a balanced effort on both sides of the net that was led by junior Svenja Engelhardt (Sinsheim, Germany). After suffering through struggles offensively and seeing the Mustangs hit over .400 in the second set, the Tigers strengthened their resolve and buried the Mustangs with a constant block that netted 4.5 team blocks in the set. Additionally, the Tigers held the Mustangs to just .051 hitting in the set as they tallied 13 kills but made 11 errors on 39 attacks. On the other side, Engelhardt emerged with four kills and no errors on eight attacks while posting five digs in the set.

Back in the match at two sets to one, the Tigers continued their rise offensively as they hit a match-best .440 in the fourth set, committing just two team attacking errors while posting 13 kills on 25 attempts. For the third set in a row, Engelhardt tallied four kills in the set to lead the Tigers, however, Torres and senior Masha Vaysburg (Livermore, Calif.) were right behind her with three kills a piece.

Back to even with two sets a piece, the Tigers used their experience from the previous night to jump out front of the Mustangs early and put the shortened fifth set away with a flurry of points. The turning point in the set came early for Pacific as the team posted a 7-1 run against Cal Poly while trailing 5-4 to take an 11-6 lead and a five point advantage that they would use to cruise to the fifth set victory and the match win. As they did in the third set, Pacific used its blocking to set up the victory as the Tigers posted a pair of blocks to hold off the Mustangs, including sealing the match with a block up the middle by Tomaszewska.

Overall, Engelhardt totaled one of her finest matches of the season against the Mustangs, shaking off a slow start in the match to post a double-double with a match-high 19 kills and 15 digs. In the match, Engelhardt hit .375, committing just four errors on 40 swings. Torres, was a steady presence for the Tigers throughout the night as she posted 15 kills and just two errors on 30 attacks while also adding four digs and three blocks. For Tomaszewska, the senior middle blocker was nearly perfect in the match tallying eight kills and no errors in nine attacks while also tallying eight blocks.

For the Mustangs, the efforts of Megan McConnell, Dominique Olowolafe and Holly Franks were not enough to propel their team to victory. McConnell posted 16 kills in the match to lead her team, however she also committed 11 errors on 46 attacks for a .109 hitting percentage. Olowolafe totaled 15 kills in the match while Franks had 13 kills for the Mustangs.

Pacific will be back in action on October 23, as they Tigers travel to Cal State Northridge to take on the Matadors in the first match of the second half of the Big West schedule. The match is scheduled for 7:00 pm.