Volleyball Weekly Notebook
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THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC VOLLEYBALL
GEORGE FOX AT PACIFIC
Match No. 22/Home Match No. 7
Wed., Oct. 26, 7 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
Live Stats:
www.goboxers.com/livestats
PACIFIC AT LINFIELD
Match No. 23/Away Match No. 8
Sat., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., Ted Wilson Gymnasium, Mcminnville, Ore.
BOXERS LOOK FOR ONE MORE WIN TO SECURE WINNING SEASON
For the Pacific volleyball team, one win in their final four matches is all that it will take to secure their first winning season since 2007. The Boxers stand a good chance of finding victories in one or both matches this week as they host George Fox on Wednesday and take to the road to face Linfield on Saturday.
BOXER BYTES
• Pacific struggled to find their hitting stride against No. 21 Puget Sound in Tacoma on Friday, managing just a .061 hitting percentage in a three-set loss to the Loggers.
Kelsy Takashima and
Mariah McHolland each had eight kills.
• The Boxers easily took the first set from Lewis & Clark on Saturday in Forest Grove, but the Pioneers came back to squeeze out close victories in the second and third before finishing out Pacific in four sets.
Kelsy Takashima once again the Pacific with 18 kills. The Boxers had a season best .484 hitting percentage in the first set.
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Kelsy Takashima finished with another strong week, collecting 26 kills and finishing with a .225 hitting percentage. She also had three service aces, eight digs and three blocks. She enters the week ranked first in the NWC in service aces, second in hitting percentage and third in kills.
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Mariah McHolland finished with one of her better all-around weeks of the season last weekend, finsihing with 20 kills, a .378 hitting percentage and five blocks. She finished with 12 kills in the Boxers' Saturday loss to Lewis & Clark.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
GEORGE FOX
The Bruins enter the week tied for eighth place with Whitman in the NWC at 2-10 and are 7-14 overall. George Fox has lost their last six matches and nine of their last 10. On Friday, the Bruins came back from two sets down to force a fifth set against Lewis & Clark, but the Bruins won just two points off their own serve in the deciding frame to give the Pioneers the win. Erin Campbell led the Bruins with 14 kills. On Saturday, Pacific Lutheran limited George Fox to a .020 hitting percentage as the ranked Lutes rolled to a three-set win. Campbell once again the led the way with 10 kills. Campbell leads George Fox offensively with 192 kills, an average of 2.78 kills per set and a .121 hitting percentage. Middle blocker Tiffany Burk has 76 blocks. As a team, the Bruins are hitting .133. Steve Grant is in his 30th season as George Fox head coach. He is the seconcd longest tenured volleyball coach in the NWC.
ALL TIME SERIES: George Fox leads 51-15
AGAINST CHAN: George Fox leads 4-3
LAST MEETING: Pacific won in four sets (20-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-22) in Newberg, Ore., on Sept. 28, 2011
LINFIELD
The Wildcats enter the week tied for sixth in the NWC with Willamette at 4-8 and are 9-12 overall. Linfield completed a hard-fought split last weekend at the eastern Washington schools. The Wildcats found themselves easily handled on Friday by league-leading Whitworth in three sets. The Pirates hit an impressive .321 percentage for the match, which included 50 kills. Linfield, meanwhile, committed just 14 attack errors on the night. Kelsey Ludin led Linfield with nine kills. On Saturday, the Wildcats survived a comeback by Whitman to win in five sets. Linfield appeared to have the third set won before the Missionaries came back for an extra points 27-25 win. Kailana Ritte-Camara led Linfield with 21 kills. Ritte-Camara leads the Linfield offense with 231 kills and 2.85 kills per set to go along with 19 aces and 209 digs. As a team, the Wildcats are hitting just .103, which is ninth in the NWC. Shane Kimura, the dean of NWC volleyball coaches, is in his 34th year at Linfield.
ALL TIME SERIES: Linfield leads 56-9
AGAINST CHAN: Linfield leads 6-1
LAST MEETING: Pacific won in three sets (25-21, 25-14, 25-21) in Forest Grove On Oct. 1, 2011
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
MARIAH FOR THE BLOCK: Middle blocker
Mariah McHolland (So., Renton, Wash.) did her part to keep the Boxers competitive in their two matches last week. The sophomore finished two matches with a combined 20 kills and a team-leading .378 hitting percentage to go along with five blocks. McHolland shared top hitting honors with
Kelsy Takashima (Sr., Kaunakakai, Hawaii) against Puget Sound with eight kills and four blocks. Against Lewis & Clark on Saturday, McHolland was one of three Pacific players to finish with double-digit kills with 12 against Lewis & Clark. McHolland enters the week with a total 160 kills, and average of 1.93 kills per set and ranks fourth in the NWC with a .260 hitting percentage. She also leads the Boxers with a total of 66 blocks (11 solo, 55 assists). Her 55 block assists breaks the former single season record (25/30-point era) of 54 set last year by
Lychelle Roberts-Kirby.
KELSY'S CASE FOR ALL-NWC: Middle blocker
Kelsy Takashima certainly has a strong case for earning her fourth All-Northwest Conference selection and her second first team selection. The senior came through strong again over the weekend, leading the Boxers with 26 kills to go along with three service aces, eight digs and three blocks. Takashima and
Mariah McHolland each had eight kills in the three set loss to No. 21 Puget Sound. She then added a team-leading 18 kills in the Boxers' four-set loss to Lewis & Clark on Saturday. Takashima easily has the numbers that make sure a near shoe-in for First Team All-NWC honors. She leads the conference with 0.53 service aces per set. She ranks second with a .312 hitting percentage and third with 2.97 kills per set. Her 44 service aces has already obliterated the old 25/30-point era record of 36 aces, which was set by Melissa Dunn and Megan Van Domelen back in the 2006 season. She needs just 11 more aces to surpass the Pacific single season all era record of 55, which was set by Tina Quarles back in 1997.
WATCHING THE RECORD BOARD: Pacific comes into this week having broken three individual match records and two season records this season.
Kelsy Takashima has surpassed the single season (25/30-point era) record for service aces with 44. Against Mt. St. Mary's (N.Y.), Takashima had nine aces to tie Chrissi Beck for the Boxers' single match record.
Jade Thompson (Jr., Marysville, Wash.) set a new four-set match record for digs, finishing with 37 against Lewis & Clark on Sept. 24. In the same match, Pacific set a team single match record for digs in a four-set match with 109. This last weekend,
Mariah McHolland set a single season record (25/30-pt. era) with 55 block assists.
View The Complete Record Board
A MOST IMPROVED SEASON: No matter how the 2011 season finishes, the Pacific volleyball team will finish the year as one of the most improved volleyball teams in the nation. The Boxers have improved by seven wins so far this season, amassing 12 victories after going 5-19 during the 2010 season. In addition, the Boxers need just one win in their final four matches to secure the team's first winning season since the 2007 campaign. In that season, the Boxers finished with a 14-9 record and tied for fourth place in the Northwest Conference standings.
IN THE NCAA STATS: Pacific enters the week ranked in two categories in the latest NCAA Division III statistics. The Boxers are ranked 41st in assists, averaging 11.51 per set. The Boxers are also ranked 49th in digs with an average of 18.1 per set. The NCAA Division III statistics are updated every Tuesday and can be found online at
http://www.ncaa.com/stats/volleyball-women/d3.
CUTTING DOWN THE LOGGERS: The Sept. 23 victory over then-No. 16 Puget Sound was a big win for Pacific volleyball in more ways than one. First, the Boxers manage to snap the Loggers' 11-match win streak that opened the 2011 season. Second, the victory was Pacific's first over Puget Sound under current head coach Lena Chan and the first for the Boxers since the end of 2007 season, a year in which the Boxers finished 14-9 overall. It also marks only the fourth time that Pacific has beat Puget Sound over the last 10 seasons. Third, the win marked the third time that a Chan-coached team has beaten an AVCA Division III Top-25 opponent. The Boxers last toppled a ranked foe in 2009 when they knocked off then No. 5 ranked La Verne in five sets.
PACIFIC PICKED NINTH IN NWC PRESEASON POLL: Northwest Conference coaches have picked Pacific to finish ninth this season in the annual preseason poll conducted in August. The Boxers received 13 of a possible 72 points in the poll. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams. The Boxers finished ninth in the NWC in 2010 with a 5-19 record. Whitworth is picked to defend their conference title, receiving 69 points and seven of the nine first place votes. Puget Sound is picked second with 58 points, receiving the other two first place votes.
