Nov. 10, 2005

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - For the second time this season, the UC Santa Barbara women's volleyball team and its counterpart from Pacific locked horns in a five-game battle, and for the second time the Gauchos emerged victorious, rallying for a 25-30, 25-30, 30-24, 30-22,16-14 Thursday night in the Alex G. Spanos Center.

With their victory, the Gauchos improve to 16-8 overall and 11-2 in Big West Conference play to move one-and-a-half matches ahead of second-place Long Beach State in the league standings. UCSB - which has won 12 of its last 13 contests - assured itself of no worse than a tie for second in the conference. Meanwhile the Tigers' heartbreaking loss drops them to 14-11, 6-5 in the Big West.

UOP raced out to an 8-1 lead in game one as seniors Sidney Bennett and Ashley Groothuis each tallied two early kills and the home team forced Santa Barbara into four errors. The Gauchos pulled within one point at 20-19 on a Janine Sandell kill, but Pacific rattled off five straight points to take a 25-19 lead. The Tigers went on to claim game one, 30-25.

Leading 21-20 in game two, Pacific once again took control with a burst as the Tigers scored four straight points on a kill from Groothuis and three UCSB errors. Leading 25-20, Pacific cruised to a 30-25 win to take a 2-0 lead into the break.

The Gauchos rallied in games three and four, holding the Tigers to a hitting percentage of just .040 over the two games as UCSB tied the match with a 30-24 win in game three and a 30-22 win in game four. The visitors did not trail while coasting to victory during the third frame, but rallied from a 13-11 deficit in the next game with four straight points and never looked back.

The fifth and deciding game saw the two teams battle back and forth with nine ties and six lead changes. Trailing 12-11, Santa Barbara stormed back with three unanswered points ignited by Emily Hendrickson's ace. That set up two Gaucho match points, but Groothuis responded with consecutive put-aways for UOP. With the score knotted at 14-14, UCSB head coach Kathy Gregory called timeout and her troops responded with a kill from junior outside hitter Olivia Waldowski, then secured the hard-fought victory when a Pacific attack sailed long.

Sandell reached the 20-kill plateau for the ninth time this season with a team-best 26 put-aways, taking an incredible 89 swings. She added 18 digs for her 13th double-double of 2005. Senior middle blocker Megan Blackshire was the only other Gaucho in double-figures with 12 kills, hitting .375 in the process while also making eight total blocks. Meanwhile Hendrickson's 33 kills were the second-best total of her career, while setter Ashley Dutro scooped a personal best 16 balls.

Groothuis led all players with 27 kills, followed by Bennett and Kara Uhl with 12 and 11, respectively. The Tigers were out-performed in every statistical category except aces, out-serving UCSB seven to five.

The Gauchos conclude Big West Conference play on Saturday, Nov. 12 with a 7:00 p.m. match at Cal State Northridge. Meanwhile Santa Barbara's home finale against UC Davis - originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19 in the Thunderdome - has been rescheduled for Friday, Nov. 18 in Robertson Gymnasium at 7:00 p.m.