Malibu, Calif. - Despite having their chances throughout the afternoon the Pacific women's volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Pepperdine Waves on Saturday, Nov. 9. The loss dropped the Tigers to 11-14 overall and 4-10 in WCC play while the Waves improved to 13-10 on the year and 6-9 in conference play.

Set scores for the match were: 25-22, 25-22, 26-24.

In a match in which the Tigers could pull a lot of positives from, it was the familiar problems that cost Pacific in the end as unforced errors doomed the Tigers to defeat for the sixth-straight match. In each of the three sets, the Tigers had their chances late to come out on top but in each case found themselves committing the critical mistake.

Late in set one with the contest ted at 20-20, the Tigers found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-0 run that broke open the frame and gave the Waves the room they needed to pull away for the win. The late run for the Waves came after Pepperdine erased a four point lea by the Tigers midway through the set.

A set later, it was the Tigers who came back from an early four point lead, storming back to tie the match at 19-19. The two teams would trade points until back-to-back hitting errors by Pacific gave the Waves the 24-21 lead and with it the 2-0 match lead.

Down big, the Tigers responded in set three with the first four points of the frame. However the service game turned the set around with the Waves eventually knotting the contest at 13-13. After mini-runs by both teams put the score at 18-18, the Tigers took what looked to be a comfortable lead at 22-19 behind a 4-1 run. However, it was not to be as three unforced errors on the attack by the Tigers handed the Waves the points they would need to stay in the match.

Overall, the Tigers picked up benchmark performances from their upperclassmen as junior Gillian Howard posted a season-best 12 kills on .522 hitting while adding five blocks while senior Megan Birch tallied 11 kills. For Birch, the 11th kill of the match was a historic one for the fourth-year Tigers as it marked her 1,000 career kill in the Orange and Black. With the kill, Birch became just the 21st Tiger in program history to reach the milestone.

The Waves were led by Katie Messing who posted 13 kills while Taylor Racich added 12 kills and three blocks. Kelley Larsen posted 10 kills while Samantha Cash grabbed seven kills and a match-best six blocks, including the block that set up match-point for the Waves.

The Tigers are back in action at home against Santa Clara on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7:00 pm.