Santa Clara, Calif. - Playing their fifth five-set match in their last seven WCC contests, the Tigers could not complete the comeback on the road at Santa Clara as the Broncos held on for a 3-2 win on Thursday night at the Leavey Center. The loss ended the first half of the WCC season for the Tigers at 4-5 while falling to 13-7 on the year, matching their loss total from a season ago. The Broncos improved to 7-2 at the halfway point in WCC play and 16-5 on the year. 

Set scores for the match were: 25-19, 21-25, 25-7, 20-25, 15-6.

From the beginning of the set, the Tigers were forced to play from behind as the Santa Clara offense was nearly flawless on its way to opening up a seven-point lead at 19-12. Staring a big deficit in the face, Pacific was able to put together a four-point spurt that included picking up its first block of the night to get back into the set, but the damage proved too much to overcome. After climbing back to within two at 20-18, the Tigers allowed the Santa Clara to run off four-straight points of its own to seal the win. In the end, Pacific pushed its hitting percentage to .444, but was over-powered by a Broncos' attack that finished at .536. 

After trailing the entire first set, Pacific would take its first lead of the night early in the second as both teams traded offensive points. Ramping up the pressure, the Tigers slowly pulled away from the Broncos as the offense was nearly perfect using a balanced attack from the inside-out. In the set, senior Holland Crenshaw came up with six kills on just eight attacks in the middle to loosen up the pin for junior Lexi Elman who came up with five more kills on just eight attacks. Pacific would push its lead to as much as six late before a mini-run on set-point by the Broncos made the contest appear closer than it truly was. Just as Santa Clara did in the first set, Pacific would go without an error for much of the set, freely swinging until the 40th point of the frame when Santa Clara picked up its first of two late blocks. Overall, the Tigers would hit .485 in the set to overwhelm the Broncos who hit .333.

The 10 minute break for the Tigers cooled off their redhot offense as Pacific started just 1-for-12 with three errors in the third set and put themselves in a 10-1 hole that would be impossible to recover from. In the end, the Tigers would have more errors than points scored, allowing the Broncos to cruise to the second set win. In addition to the unforced errors, the Broncos came up with a trio of blocks to double their block total for the match at that point.

After shaking off the shell shock from the third the Tigers got back on track thanks to a few quick dumps by the senior setter, Kimmy Whitson, who came up with a pair of early kills before spreading the ball to her hitters. In addition to the offense, Whitson would get her defense going as well as she combined with sophomore Janie Feldsher on a pair of blocks during the Tigers' 6-0 run that gave Pacific some much needed separation at 15-10 midway through the set. Feldsher would also come up with a kill on an overpass during the run as the Broncos' passing suffered and Pacific took back the momentum of the match. The Tigers would ride their lead the rest of the way to push the set into a fifth and final run to 15.

In the fifth, everything went the Broncos way as the two teams found themselves locked in long rally after long rally with each point siding to Santa Clara. With the ball falling their way at home, the Broncos were able to finish off the Tigers, posting 10 kills to just one error in the final sprint.

Overall, Elman led the Tigers with 17 kills while adding four digs and three blocks. In the middle, Crenshaw posted a season-best 13 kills on .706 hitting while Feldsher came up with a career-best 10 kills on .318 hitting to go with a career-high five blocks. 

Leading all attackers in the match was Santa Clara's Nikki Hess who posted 19 kills on .381 hitting to go with 13 digs for the double-double. Right behind Hess, Sabrina Clayton posted 14 kills while in the middle Lacy Maas and Anna McCreadie combined for 17 kills and 10 blocks. As a team, the Broncos hit .357 against the Tigers while Pacific hit .248. 

The Tigers begin the second half of WCC play on Saturday, Oct. 24 when they head to San Francisco for a midday tilt on the Hilltop with the Dons. The match is scheduled for 1:00 pm at War Memorial Gym.