Boxers Run Into Buzzsaw Of Ranked Loggers

09/19/2008 - article care of Blake Timm - Pacific University

Box Score: http://www.goboxers.com/vb/stats/2008/VB09-19.HTM

Northwest Conference Volleyball
No. 9 Puget Sound def. Pacific 25-18, 25-23, 25-15

TACOMA. Wash. ­ A change in venue and a nearly two-week layoff wasn¹t enough to throw Puget Sound off of their game Friday as the No. 9 ranked Loggers beat Pacific in three sets, 25-18, 25-23, 25-15, in Northwest Conference volleyball action at Stadium High School.

The layoff seemed to do little to phase the Loggers (6-3, 1-0 NWC), who compiled a .202 attack percentage behind a pair of 12-kill efforts from Lindsey Denman and Brynn Blickenstaff. Neither did the change of venue from Puget Sound¹s Memorial Fieldhouse to the nearby high school. The facility was closed earlier in the week due to potential structural problems.

Pacific (2-8, 1-1 NWC), meanwhile, seemed unable to carry on the momentum built after their three-set victory at George Fox on Wednesday. The team hit just .043 for the match, led by Kelsy Takashima¹s (Fr., Kaunakakai, Hawaii) 10 kills. A total of just four Pacific players registered kills on the night.

In the first set, the Loggers took the lead from the very beginning and never gave it up, hitting .256 compared with just .091 for the Boxers as UPS took the early lead in the match. Pacific pulled to within 11-10 on Takashima¹s second kill of the night, but saw the tide quickly turned when the Loggers scored the next five points, three by way of Pacific errors.

In the second set, both teams battled with a number of long rallies. With each team over 50 attacks for the set, the Loggers were able to recover from nine attack errors to slip past Pacific, 25-23, heading into the break. The Boxers again struggled as well offensively, committing seven attack errors and hitting just .035 for the set.

In the third set, the Boxers took a brief lead early but the Loggers began to pull away and they clinch their NWC opener with a 25-15 win in set three. The Loggers had their best hitting set of the match, collecting 13 kills and four attack errors on 30 attempts for a .300 clip. The Boxers again continued to slide, hitting an even .000 in the final set.

Melissa Dunn (Sr., Sonoma, Calif.) led Pacific with 17 digs, while Brittney Johnson (Fr., Beaverton, Ore.) added 12 assists. Juliette Witous paced Puget Sound with 16 digs and Jamee Fred added 41 assists.

Pacific¹s next action will mark their first matches in the Pacific Athletic Center in nearly a month. The Boxers will host Whitman on Friday night at 7 p.m., followed by Whitworth on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m.

NOTES: The match was the first off-campus Northwest Conference match played by the Boxers since 2000. That year, the Boxers played four conference matches (five matches total) at Forest Grove High School while renovations to the Pacific Athletic Center were completed...Stadium High School, a Tacoma area landmark, was originally built between 1983 and 1906 and was originally intended to be a hotel run by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The school was completely remodeled in 2006 and parts of the school were featured in the film 10 Things I Hate About You.