Jan. 25, 2008

Box Score

Stockton, Calif.- The Pacific men's volleyball team fell 3-0, Friday, Jan. 25 at Cal State Northridge. The loss dropped the Tigers to 0-7 overall, and 0-5 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) play. Scores of the match were 30-25, 30-25, 30-20.

The Tigers continued to struggle Friday night, as they fell to the No. 7 Cal State Northridge Matadors in straight sets. Pacific's offense was steady through the match, but hitting errors plagued Pacific throughout the night.

Game one saw the Tigers fall into an early 4-0 hole due to some strong serving by Northridge. A timeout called by Pacific gave the Tigers time to rally, and they were able to bring the score back to 6-4, in favor of Northridge, behind two kills from senior Simon Chen-Byerley (Northfield, Ill.) and senior Pekka Seppanen (Kuopio, Finland). The Tigers were never able to close the gap and trailed by three or more points the remainder of the game as they fell 25-30 in game one. Seppanen was the high point in Pacific's offense with seven kills on the game.

The second game got off to a much better start for the Tigers as they were able to take an early advantage on the Matadors. Behind two kills from junior Jeff Hendershot (Claremont, Calif.) and several hitting errors from the Matadors, Pacific found themselves leading 6-3 early. With Pacific trailing 10-9, a missed serve by the Tigers started a Northridge rally which extended their lead to 13-9, and from there the Matadors never looked back. Trailing the rest of the game, Pacific made a slight comeback at the end to make it 28-24, Northridge. The Matadors closed the game out with a kill from Kevin McNiff to take the game 30-25. Hendershot carried the Tiger offense with six kills on 11 swings for a .455 hitting percentage.

The Tigers began game three, hungry for a win, and they used that fire to keep the game close early. Errors by Northridge, as well as a kill from sophomore Jason Borchin (Roseville, Calif.) made the score 8-8. A few points later the score was tied at 11 a piece, and the Tigers were at the service line. An untimely service error gave the Matadors just the break they needed to run away with the rest of the game. Behind six kills from Cody Loe and Mike Gaudino, Northridge kept the Tigers at bay the rest of the game to close it out 30-20.

Pacific was led by Seppanen who had 15 kills, hitting for .379 on the night. Borchin contributed 12 kills for Pacific as well.

Cal State Northridge was led by Cody Loe who had 13 kills on 21 attempts for a .571 hitting percentage.

The Tigers are in action again, Saturday, Jan. 26 as they take on the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos at Robertson Gymnasium in Santa Barbara, Calif. At 7:00 pm.