Volleyball Weekly Notebook
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THIS WEEK IN PACIFIC VOLLEYBALL
PACIFIC LUTHERAN AT PACIFIC
Match No. 12/Home Match No. 7
Fri., Sept. 28, 7 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
Live Stats:
www.goboxers.com/livestats
Live Video:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
COLORADO COLLEGE AT PACIFIC
Match No. 13/Home Match No. 8
Sat., Sept. 29, 6 p.m., Stoller Center, Forest Grove
Live Stats:
www.goboxers.com/livestats
Live Video:
www.goboxers.com/webcasts
BOXERS WELCOME PAIR OF NATIONALLY RANKED FOES
After continuing their great Northwest Conference start off with a five-set win over Linfield on Wednesday, the Pacific volleyball team will test their newfound momentum with a pair of matches against nationally ranked foes. The Boxers will host No. 18 ranked Pacific Lutheran on Friday before entertaining No. 17 Colorado College on Saturday in a non-conference match.
BOXER BYTES
• Pacific won their third straight match to open the NWC season on Friday and their first one that went just the minimum three sets. The Boxers beat Lewis & Clark 25-15, 25-22, 25-19.
• No. 10 ranked Puget Sound proved to be too much for the Boxers as the Loggers rolled to a three-set victory, 25-13, 35-14, 29-27. The Boxers hit a respectable .133 for the match.
• On Wednesday, Pacific played their fourth five-set match of the season and their fourth against Linfield in the past five seasons. The Boxers went on to the hard-fought victory.
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Marie Rewick led the Boxers in all three matches, finishing with 13 kills against Lewis & Clark and Puget Sound. She then finished with a game-high 17 kills and nine digs in the victory over Linfield.
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Alexa Block also had double-digit kills in all three matches. Block shared the team lead with 13 kills in the three-set win over Lewis & Clark and had 11 kills in the loss to Puget Sound. She added another 11-kill performance in the victory over Linfield.
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Mariah McHolland continues to be a consistent presence for the Boxers. finishing last weekend with 14 kills, four service aces and five blocks. She put together season highs of nine kills, four aces and three blocks in the win over Lewis & Clark. Against Linfield, McHolland came up big with 16 kills and five blocks.
• Pacific's 4-1 start to Northwest Conference play is the best in the modern history over the program (since 1986). The Boxers opened with a 3-2 record in their first five conference matches last season.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
PACIFIC LUTHERAN
The Lutes enter the week tied with Puget Sound for first in the NWC at 4-0 and are 10-2 overall. PLU moved up one spot to No. 18 in the AVCA Division III Top-25 Poll after a sweep of their recent Willamette Valley road trip. On Friday, the Lutes swept Linfield in three sets. Kelsey Pacolt led the way with nine kills and a .533 hitting percentage as she had only one error in 15 attempts. On Satruday, Lewis & Clark took the Lutes to four sets before finally taking the victory. The Pioneers stole the first set from the Lutes as they hit .371 in the opener. But the Lutes dominated the final three serts as the Pioneers never again had a positive hitting percentage. Urdahl once again led PLU with 10 kills. Bethany Huston leads the Lutes with 118 kills and 2.68 kills per set. She ranks third in the NWC with a .282 hitting percentage and second with 1.39 blocks per set. Blair Bjorkman is ranked third in the NWC with 0.43 aces per set. As a team, PLU is hitting .192 with averages of 13.23 kills, 1.66 blocks and 19.70 digs per set. Kevin Aoki is in his 17th year as Pacific Lutheran head coach.
ALL TIME SERIES: Pacific Lutheran leads 44-11
LAST MEETING: PLU won in five sets (13-25, 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, 15-12) in Forest Grove on Nov. 5, 2011
COLORADO COLLEGE
The No. 17 ranked Tigers, members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, enters the week with a 10-4 record. The match with Pacific will be part of a four-match Northwest swing that sees the Tigers play George Fox on Thursday, Linfield on Friday and Puget Sound on Sunday. Colorado College went 2-1 in their first weekend of conference matches last weekend, falling in five sets to Trinity (Texas) before scoring a three-set victory over Centenary and a four-set win over Austin on Sunday. Emily Phillips is the Tigers' leading hitter with 116 kills, an average of 2.37 kills per set and a .205 hitting percentage. Setter Devon Lucero is averaging 8.72 assists per set and Laura Goldsmith is averaging 4.74 digs per set. As a team, Colorado College is averaging 11.17 kills, 10.78 assists, 18.35 digs and 1.89 blocks per set and is hitting .175. Rick Swan is in his 15th year as Colorado College head coach.
ALL TIME SERIES: Colorado College leads 4-1
LAST MEETING: Colorado College won 3-1 in Forest Grove on Oct. 1, 2005
PACIFIC NEWS & NOTES
FRESHMAN PHENOM: As she hits the midway point of her freshman season,
Marie Rewick (Fr., Honolulu, Hawaii) has shown no signs of slowing down. The outside hitter has led the Boxers in hitting in each of their last three matches. Last weekend, Rewick came up with 13 kills in both matches against Lewis & Clark on Friday and Puget Sound on Saturday. Against Linfield on Wednesday, Rewick came alive for 17 kills to go along with nine digs and two blocks. Rewick enters the week among the conference leaders in kills, currently ranking seventh with an average of 2.96 kills per set. Her .145 hitting percentage ranks second for the Boxers.
UPPERCLASS LEADERSHIP: Mariah McHolland's (Jr., Renton, Wash.) contributions to the Boxers' NWC season successes cannot be underrated. In the five league matches, McHolland has averaged 2.57 kills 0.33 service aces and 1.05 blocks per set and leads the team with a .289 hitting percentage. McHolland played a key role in Wednesday's five-set victory over Linfield, finishing with 16 kills, five blocks and a .419 hitting percentage. Over the weekend, McHolland had nine kills and three blocks in the team's win over Lewis & Clark and five kills and two blocks in the loss to Puget Sound. McHolland enters this weekend's matches ranked seventh in the NWC with her .251 hitting percentage and is ranked ninth with her average of 0.83 blocks per set.
BLOCK PARTY: Alexa Block (Sr., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) has continued to swing well through her senior season. The outside hitter finished the last three matches with a .202 hitting percentage with 35 kills and an average of 3.18 kills per set. Block finished with 13 kills in the win over Lewis & Clark on Friday, 11 kills in the loss to Puget Sound on Saturday and another 11 kills in the victory over Linfield. Block has recovered well from a shoulder injury that caused her to miss the final half of the 2011 conference season. She enters the weekend ranked eighth in the NWC with an average of 2.73 kills per set. She ranks second for the Boxers with 123 kills and is tied for third with 19 blocks.
UNPRECEDENTED START: After opening the season losing their first seven matches, the Boxers have opened the 2012 Northwest Conference season with one of the best league starts in program history. The team's 4-1 start to the conference schedule has not happened in the modern history of the program, dating back to the 1986 campaign. The 2011 team opened the conference season with a 3-2 record and went 5-3 over the first half of the league schedule.
PROGRESS TOWARDS RANKS: This weekend's matches against Pacific Lutheran and Colorado College will mark the fourth and fifth matches for the Boxers this season against top-25 ranked teams. Pacific Lutheran enters the week ranked No. 18, while Colorado College is ranked No. 17. Pacific is 0-3 this season against ranked teams, with a four-set loss to No. 23 Occidental on Sept. 1, a five-set loss to No. 6 Cal Lutheran on Sept. 8 and a three-set loss to No. 10 Puget Sound on Sept. 22.
GIMME FIVE: Five seems to be the magic number for the Boxers when it comes to winning. Pacific enters the weekend with a 3-1 record in five-set matches. The latest came on Wednesday when the Boxers knocked off Linfield. The only exception to the five-set win rule was last Friday when the Boxers needed just the minimum three sets to beat Lewis & Clark.
PACIFIC PICKED SEVENTH IN NWC PRESEASON POLL: Northwest Conference coaches have picked Pacific seventh in the NWC this season in the preseason poll released in August. The Boxers received 24 of a possible 80 points on the poll to finish three points ahead of Willamette and six points behind George Fox. Pacific Lutheran is selected to ovetake 2011 NWC champion Whitworth for the conference crown, receiving five first place votes and a total of 65 points. The Pirates earned two first place votes and 54 points while Puget Sound is picked third with 50 points and one first place vote. Lewis & Clark was picked fourth with 44 points while Linfield is fifth with 35 points.
