Volleyball Weekly Notebook
Pacific finishes up the 2009 season with the longest conference road trip, hitting the highway for matches with Whitworth and Whitman
QUICK LINKS: Pacific Roster | Schedule & Results | Statistics | NWC Standings | NWC Schedule | NWC Statistics
THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC VOLLEYBALL
PACIFIC AT WHITWORTH
Match No. 22/Away Match No. 8
Fri., Nov. 6, 7 p.m., Whitworth Fieldhouse, Spokane, Wash.
PACIFIC AT WHITMAN
Match No. 23/Away Match No. 9
Sat., Nov. 7, 5 p.m., Sherwood Center, Walla Walla, Wash.
BOXERS WRAP UP 2009 SEASON IN EASTERN WASHINGTON
The Pacific volleyball team will conclude the 2009 season with a pair of matches on the road against the eastern Washington schools. The Boxers are in Spokane on Friday to face Whitworth and finish the year on Saturday in Walla Walla against Whitman.
BOXER BYTES
* Pacific dropped both of their weekend matches, both in three sets. The Boxers fell on the road to George Fox, 25-13, 35-13, 25-16, on Friday. On Saturday, the Boxers dropped their home finale to Lewis & Clark, 25-14, 25-9, 25-17.
* The Boxers struggled in the hitting department, posting a -.009 hitting percentage against George Fox and a slightly better .029 against Lewis & Clark.
* Outside hitter Alexa Block led Pacific with 14 kills in the two matches. She continues to lead the Northwest Conference in kills with 3.64 per set (309 total).
* Pacific will be trying to win just their second match away from the Pacific Athletic Center and snap a seven-match losing streak. The Boxers are 1-9 away from Forest Grove (0-7 in away matches, 1-2 in neutral site matches).
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
WHITWORTH
The Pirates enter the week tied for sixth in the NWC at 5-9 and are 9-16 overall. Whitworth is the the throes of a three-match losing streak, falling to Puget Sound in five sets on Friday and Pacific Lutheran in three sets on Saturday. The Pirates led Puget Sound 2-1 before the Loggers rebounded to take the fourth set and won 16-14 in the fifth. The Pirates hit .170 for the match, led by 16 kills from Morgan Veleke. Whitworth provided the newly crowned NWC champion Lutes with three close sets, but PLU never allowed the Pirates a victory. The Pirates outhit the Lutes .161 to .151, led by 10 kills by Kaimi Rocha. Rocha leads the Whitworth offense with 208 kills and 2.34 kills per set. As a team, Whitworth is hitting .144. Steve Rupe is in his 11th season as Whitworth head coach.
ALL TIME SERIES: Whitworth leads 28-16 AGAINST CHAN: Whitworth leads 2-1
LAST MEETING: Whitworth won 3-2 (25-15, 21-25, 25-15, 20-25, 15-11) in Forest Grove on
Oct. 10, 2009
WHITMAN
The Missionaries enter the week in ninth place in the NWC at 1-13 and are 4-17 overall. Whitman has struggled this season and is in the midst of a 11-match losing streak. They took two road losses last weekend, falling in three sets to Pacific Lutheran on Friday and Puget Sound on Saturday. The Lutes went off for a .268 hitting percentage against the Missionaries on Friday, with Whitman hitting .121. Alex Graves had 15 kills. Whitman hit just .035 in their loss to Puget Sound. Courtney Brewer led the Missionaries with 10 kills. Graves leads the Whitman offense with 276 kills and 3.54 kills per set while Brewer has a .273 hitting percentage. As a team, the Missionaries are hitting .135. Carolyn Papineau is in her third year as Whitman head coach.
ALL TIME SERIES: Pacific leads 30-20 AGAINST CHAN: Pacific leads 3-0
LAST MEETING: Pacific won 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-20, 25-23) in Forest Grove on Oct. 9, 2009
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
CONFERENCE KILLS LEADER: Outside hitter Alexa Block (Fr., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) continues to establish herself as one of the top young hitters in the Northwest Conference. Block is still on top of the NWC in kills, averaging 3.64 kills per set (309 total). She added 14 kills to her total over the weekend, topped by a eight-kill effort against George Fox on Friday. Block leads the Boxers in the hitting department with her 309 kills and also ranks second for the team with 265 digs (3.01 digs per set). As a freshman, Block has played in all 88 sets for the Boxers and has a total of 14 double doubles (kills & digs).
ALSO IN THE NWC STATISTICS: Middle blocker Kelsy Takashima (So., Kaunakakai, Hawaii) ranks ninth in the NWC in service aces, averaging 0.32 per set (27 total). Setter Brittney Johnson (So., Beaverton, Ore.) continues to rank fifth in the NWC in assists, averaging 8.12 per set (674 total). Libero Jade Thompson (Fr., Marysville, Wash.) ranks fourth in the league in digs, averaging 4.09 per set (348 total).
LOOKING TO END THEIR ROAD WOES: With the season quickly coming to an end, Pacific will be looking to end a long drought away from the Pacific Athletic Center. Pacific enters the week with a 1-9 record in matches away from Forest Grove. That includes a 0-7 mark in away matches and a 1-2 record in neutral site matches. Pacific’s last victory on the road was on Sept. 11, when the Boxers posted a five-set victory over then No. 6 ranked La Verne at the Cal-Lu-Fornia Invitational in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
NO SENIOR NIGHT FOR THESE BOXERS: Where most teams would use the final home match of the season to honor their departing seniors, there is no need this season for Pacific volleyball. Pacific did not have a senior on this year’s team, adding to the relative youth of the entire program. The 2009 Pacific roster consists of three juniors, five sophomores and six freshmen. Of the team’s regular starters, two are juniors, two are sophomores and three are freshmen.
STRETCH IT AS LONG AS YOU CAN: Pacific’s chances to win seem to get better as the matches get longer. The Boxers are 6-8 this season in matches that have gone longer than three sets, including a 2-4 record in four-set matches and a 4-4 mark in five-set marathons. After going five sets in six of their first eight matches, the Boxers have played just one five-set match in their last 10 matches. Conversely, Pacific is 1-7 in three-set matches. Their last sweep cane on Sept. 4, with the Boxers sweeping Schreiner at the Boxer Kickoff Volleyball Invitational.
BLOCKING RECORDS TIED: Kelsy Takashima tied a pair of blocking records in the Boxers’ five-set victory over Wartburg on Sept. 5 at the Boxer Kickoff Volleyball Invitational. Takashima had 11 kills in the match, tying the single match record for blocks and blocks in a five-set match. She now shares the records with Joanna Delanty, who had 11 blocks against Whitman during the 2006 season. Takashima now owns or shares four of the Boxers’ six single match blocking records.
BLOCK NOTCHES KILLS MARK: Alexa Block will finish her first season with a spot in the Pacific record book. The freshman outside hitter has reset the Pacific record twice for kills in a four-set match. She first eclipsed the mark with 23 kills against Willamette on Sept. 25. Just a little over a week later, Block added one more to the total with a 24-kill performance gainst Whitman on Oct. 9. The previous mark was 21 kills in a four-set match, set by Jill Peacock against Lewis & Clark on Oct. 17, 2007.
HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: The Boxers continue to enjoy a strong home court advantage in their season-opening Boxer Kickoff Volleyball Invitational. Thanks to their 3-0 record this year, Pacific is 11-8 all-time in Boxer Kickoff matches. This year marked the first time that Pacific went through the tournament with an unblemished record. Overall, Pacific is 6-6 at home this season.
ROAD WARRIORS: Beginning this weekend, the Boxers will have to put their road mettle to the test. The Boxers’ five-match home stand ended last weekend against Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound, Pacific will play five of their final six matches on the road. The string will be broken up by a single home match on Halloween night against Lewis & Clark. The Boxers will try to find a winning combination on the road. They are 0-4 in true road matches and 1-6 away from the Pacific Athletic Center, including neutral site matches.
LENA CHAN 1, RAY NUNN 0: In the first battle between coach and former player, chalk one up to the former player. Pacific Head Coach Lena Chan opened the season by beating her former Pacific head coach, Ray Nunn, with thei five-set victory over Concordia on Sept. 1. Nunn coached Chan in her first two seasons as a collegian before she transferred to Division I Baylor in 1996. Nunn coached the Boxers for five seasons, from 1993 to 1996. His 69 victories rank him as the winningest coach in the modern history of the program. Nunn has spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Concordia and is in his third year as head coach at Tualatin High School.
PACIFIC PICKED SIXTH IN NWC PRESEASON POLL: After tying for sixth place last year, Northwest Conference coaches have picked Pacific to finish sixth again in the annual preseason poll released in August. The Boxers picked up 36 of a possible 90 points in the poll. They had been picked fifth in the 2008 edition of the poll. Pacifc Lutheran was the clear favorite to repeat as champions, picking up six of nine first place votes and 84 points. Puget Sound is picked second, garnering three first place votes and 74 total points.
Posted by Blake Timm (timmbr@pacificu.edu) on Nov 3, 2009 at 8:28 AM
