Pacific beats Cardinals 2 nights in a row

[vbfan4life]

PACIFIC ENDS SEASON ON A HIGH NOTE BY ELIMINATING STANFORD FROM POST-SEASON PLAY

Box Score


PALO ALTO, Calif. — The Pacific Tigers men’s volleyball team took out No. 10 Stanford for the second match in a row, beating the Cardinal 3-2 on Saturday, April 17. With the win, the Tigers end their season with an overall record of 10-19 and an MPSF record of 6-16. The Tigers eliminated Stanford from MPSF play, dropping them to 9-18 overall and 6-16 in the MPSF.

Game scores for the match were: 24-30, 21-30, 30-27, 30-21, 15-10

For the first time this season, the Tigers rallied from two games down to take the win. The Tigers took the season series from the Cardinal, 2-1, falling only in the UCSB tournament to Stanford, 3-2. With this final victory, the Tigers go out having won three of their last four matches, all of which were over ranked opponents.

The Cardinal came out in games one and two, playing for their post-season lives, and dominated the Tigers to take a quick two game lead. The Tigers were outhit in game one .333-to-.516, and were utterly controlled in game two .156-to-.667.

However, history was made for the Tigers during the first game of the match when junior Mike Gawlik (Naperville, Ill.) dug David Vogel’s attack which led to a Mauricio Brizuela (Asuncion, Paraguay) kill to bring the game to a 29-24 Stanford advantage. The dig was Gawlik’s fourth dig of the game and his 713th dig of his career, moving him past Aaron Wachtfogel (2000-03) for No. 1 on the all-time career digs list for Pacific. Gawlik ended the game with nine digs giving him 719 digs for his three year career.

Despite the two game deficit, the Tigers fought back, and utterly controlled the Cardinal attack in the final three games of the match. After hitting .667 in game two, Stanford was held to .128 in game three and .000 in games four and five. The Tigers on the other hand hit .156 in game three and .500 in games four and five.

Pacific got a huge game from junior Brian Zodrow (Kaneohe, Hawaii) in game three as he hammered down 10 of his match high 16 kills in the game. Game four was dominated by Brizuela, as he served up three aces throughout the game. He finished the match with four service aces. Fittingly the Tigers ended the match in game five on a Zodrow kill, but were led by senior Sean Rodgers (Fresno, Calif.) who put down three of his 12 kills in the final game.

The Tigers had four attackers hit double figures in kills: Zodrow (16), Brizuela (14), Rodgers (12) and junior Nils Dauburs (Riga, Latvia) (11). Dauburs ended the match with three aces and six blocks to lead all blockers. On the season, Dauburs had 313 kills, 71 aces and 65 blocks.

The Cardinal were led by Craig Buell with 14 kills while Nick Manov and David Vogel finished with 13 each and Ben Reddy ended with 11 kills.

[OC24]

Stanford didn't quit playing, Pacific decided it was time to hand it to them and played out of their minds 2 matches in a row. I was at the game tonight and I swear there were 3 different teams playing. Stanford was the same the whole time, but Pacific games 1&2 and Pacific games 3-5 were totally different teams. The first team was a lot like the Pacific we've seen all year. The second realized that they were a better team and even though Stanford played very well (especially the middles), Pacific couldn't be stopped.

However, looks like UCI won anyway so Stanford couldn't have made the playoffs even if they had won tonight.

By the way, has anybody noticed how whiney Stanford is? They whine and complain during nearly every play, whether it is a line call or a near-perfect set put up by the opposing team. It reflects terribly on their program, but I think the way the players act is inspired by their coach who also participates in the display. I know the nor-cal refs are terrible (some awfully bad calls/non-calls tonight and in the other matches I've seen this year), but sometimes you just have to accept it and keep playing. Stanford complains or moans nonstop during play, even when the refs are actually right. Of all the teams I've seen this year, Stanford is by far the whiniest. Any thoughts?

[vb]

For Standford:

The Heimlich Maneuver - How to do the Heimlich Maneuver: For choking: ...

[georgia(pacific)girl]

Beating Stanford is always a good thing IMHO. ;D

[beachman]

Hey Stanford, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?? For once, the rich don't get richer!

[Tiruray2004]

Beachman said:

Hey Stanford, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?? For once, the rich don't get richer!

OTOH, the poor got even poorer with the loss Of Cynthia Barboza.

With state budget cuts, look for some of your sports programs to be cut as well!!