The Pacific volleyball team opened up its 2017 season, splitting a pair of matches with a loss in four (27-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23) to Montana Western and a straight-set win over Schreiner (25-13, 25-18, 25-13) on Friday.

The Boxers (1-1) hit .257 in the four-set loss to the Bulldogs and .217 in the win over the Mountaineers.

Montana Western was playing in its ninth match of the young season compared to the first match of the season for host Pacific. The Bulldogs' Kylie McCree and Kelsey Potter accounted for 17 and 15 kills, respectively.

Sophomore Karlee Duncan (Bend, Ore.) opened the season with a 22-kills, 24-dig effort for her second career double double to pace three Boxers with double-digit kills. Duncan had seven kills in the second and third sets, respectively. Junior Morgan Mendicino (San Diego, Calif.) had 17 kills en route to a .286 hitting percentage; plus, freshman Jordan Zweifel (Tillamook, Ore.) made a splash with her Pacific debut with 13 kills. The hot hitting trio was set by junior Ellie Parker (Beaverton, Ore.), who recorded 54 assists to go along with a pair of service aces, plus senior Anna VanderWeyst (Lacey, Wash.) had 44 digs in the defeat.

A tightly contest first set saw six lead changes and 11 tie scores. Pacific held a 23-20 lead before three-straight points by the visitors tied the set at 23 and neither team could get the necessary two-point margin to win the set until the Bulldogs scored three-straight points after trailing 25-24. Two of the three points came on kills by McKenna Fink. In the second set, there were six more tie scores and three lead changes. The visitors out hit Pacific, .394 to .293 for a two-set lead.

A resilient Pacific squad came back to win the third set, 25-17. Duncan had seven kills to lead four other Boxers with multiple kills. With the score tied at 10, Pacific went ahead on a kill by Zweifel and never relinquished the lead. The Boxers closed out the set with a 9-2 run. Pacific held the lead for most of the fourth set before Montana Western rallied for a 7-3 spurt to secure the match.

In the nightcap against Schreiner, the Boxers were led by Mendicino, who had 10 kills for her second-straight match with double-digit kills to lead a Pacific attack with nine-different players recording a kill in the win. Mendicino also had three service aces; plus, Duncan added seven digs and kills to the win. In the win, Pacific hit .217 and limited the Mountaineers to a .012 hitting percentage.

The Boxers raced out to an early 12-6 lead and never trailed for the remainder of the opening set. Duncan and Zweifel sparked the attack with three kills each to set the tone. In the second set, Mendicino came alive with five kills as Pacific and Schreiner went back and forth until a 9-2 spurt put the host Boxers ahead by two sets with a 25-18 win. The third set was dominated by the Boxers as they hit .273 with four more kills to go along with three service aces by Mendicino as well as three from Karissa Komo (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii). Hannah Hulse (Cove, Ore.) and Milana Ivkovic (Beaverton, Ore.) each had a pair of kills to close the door on the straight-set win.

Next, on the final day of the Oregon Trail Classic, Pacific will host Olivet at 1:30 p.m. at the Stoller Center on Saturday, Sept. 2.