Tough Loss to the Tigers

Saturday, February 10, 2007 (from http://www.mvball.uci.edu)

Irvine, Calif. -- No. 13 Pacific upset second-ranked UC Irvine, 3-2 (32-30, 30-28, 20-30, 30-18, 15-10) at Crawford Court Saturday.

Pacific controlled game one and led 25-21 before UCI went on 8-4 spurt to tie the score at 29-29 on a Taylor Wilson kill. The teams each scored a point before Simon Chin-Byerley had a kill and assisted in a block with Maor Nutkevitch to give UOP the game 32-30.

UOP jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in game two on strong serving by Nutkevitch, recording two aces in that span. The Tigers would continue to lead until another Wilson kill tied the score at 19 all. A kill by Jayson Jablonsky and a service ace by Jon Steller would give UCI a two point cushion. The lead was short lived as Pacific used an Anteater service error and a kill by Matt Cornell to knot the game at 25-25. The teams would trade points until UOP would take a 29-27 advantage on two UCI hitting miscues. A kill by Wilson delayed game point until Pekka Seppanen ended the set with a kill, 30-28.

Pacific led game three, 14-12 before the Anteaters went on a 6-3 run to open a 20-15 advantage. The run included three kills by Aaron Harrell and three UCI blocks. The Anteaters would continue to roll through the game, 30-20.

UCI began game four with a 5-1 lead, which included two blocks and a service ace by Matt Webber. UCI did not look back winning the game, 30-18 and forcing game five. UCI had seven blocks in game four.

UOP started the fifth game, 6-2 with the help of two Seppanen kills. UCI would come as close as 11-9 before UOP ended the game out-scoring UCI 4-1 to win 15-10. UOP hit .615 (9-1-13) in the final game.

Seppanen led Pacific with 14 kills followed by Cornell (13) and Nutkevitch (10). UOP won the match despite hitting .164 as a team.

Jayson Jablonsky paced UCI with 17 kills, three solo blocks, five block assists and six digs. Middle blocker Aaron Harrell hit .526 with 11 kills in 19 swings and just one error. David Smith hit .538 on seven kills without an error in 13 attempts. Cole Reinholm had nine kills and six digs. Webber added a team-high 10 digs, while Brian Thornton tallied 51 set assists.

The Anteaters had a season-high 18 blocks to UOP's 10 and out-dug the Tigers, 38-34.

UCI goes to 12-3 overall and 7-3 in the MPSF, while Pacific improves to 7-6 on the year and 5-4 in league play.