News Release
Pacific Men's Volleyball: Tigers Drop International Match at Calgary, 3-0
(October 16, 2009) - During the first match of the Calgary Dino Cup Tournament, the Pacific men's volleyball team was downed by host Calgary, 3-0. Set scores for the match were: 25-12, 25-12, 25-11.
With the loss, Pacific fell to 0-1 in fall tournament play, while Calgary improved to 1-0 in the tournament.
During the first set, the Tigers fell behind early on with the score at 11-2 in favor of the Dinos, after Calgary used a nine-point run to jump ahead on the board. A kill from sophomore Sean Daley (Moorpark, Calif.) stopped the Calgary rally and gave Pacific a boost and brought the score to 11-3. Later in the set, as Pacific trailed 20-8, the Tigers tried to stop the bleeding and added three-straight points when senior Clay Ostrander (Wheaton, Ill.) led things off with a kill fed by senior Kevin Downing (Poipu, Hawaii) to momentarily silence Calgary.
Pacific used its momentum and persistence to force a Calgary hitting error and inch closer into double-digits at 20-10. Another Calgary errant swing led to a block by Daley and sophomore Dylan Walker (La Canada, Calif.), pushing the Tigers up to 20-11. However, Pacific's rally was too late in the game, as the deficit proved to be too much. Calgary capitalized on its early run and took the first set, 25-12.
The early lead in the match was all the Dinos needed to carry on strong into the second set, as they broke away from an early 3-3 tie and claimed the next 11 points, tipping the score in their favor, 14-3.
Sophomore Nicolaas Schenk (Kamuela, Hawaii) put a stop to the Dinos' scoring run and earned his first kill of the match to give way to a Pacific sideout and take the score to 14-4. From there, Calgary began tallying more points in its favor and with the Tigers down at 18-5, a four-point rally showed that the Tigers were going to put up a hard-fought match, and climb back to an 18-9 deficit. Sophomore Chaz Hindsley (Northfield, Ill.), Downing and Ostrander each nabbed a kill in the run.
Trying to put a stop to the Dino momentum, the Tigers kept long rallies away from Calgary early into the third set. Sideouts exchanged sides of the net, as the Tigers stuck with Calgary up until they trailed 8-5 after Ostrander recorded another one of his six kills in the match. But after that point, the Dinos went on to rally off seven-straight points and brought the score higher in their favor at 15-5. However, back-to-back attacking errors by Calgary's Pierre Rocque gave Pacific two more points to work with, as the deficit was cut to 15-7.
The Dinos claimed two more points until the media timeout, leading 17-7 until Pacific tried for a scoring run of its own. Schnek put a stop the Calgary's scoring efforts, downing a kill of his own to put Pacific back to 15-8. At 18-8, Schnek did it again and another Dino attacking error put the Tigers within eight points at 18-10. But Calgary took the reigns and used a six-point run to put the match just out of reach for the Tigers at 24-10. Pacific delayed the match point by feeding the ball to Hindsley, who laid down a kill and gave the Tigers their 11th point at 24-11. That's all the Dinos would allow, as they closed the match with a final score of 25-11 in the third set.
Ostrander led the Tigers with six kills, three digs and two blocks in the match.
The Tigers resume action in the second match of the Calgary Dino Cup when they take on Trinity Western at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16.
