Jan. 15, 2005

Box Score

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Pacific men's volleyball team fought off a late USC rally to defeat the Trojans in five sets in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Saturday, Jan. 15, at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Set scores were 30-26, 29-31, 30-19, 23-30, 17-15.

With the win, Pacific improved to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in MPSF action. USC fell to 1-4 overall (0-2 MPSF).

Just over 12 hours after completing a five set marathon against No. 3 Pepperdine, for the second day in a row, the Tigers played five except this time the outcome was different. Led by senior Nils Dauburs' (Riga, Latvia) second consecutive outstanding outing, Pacific was able to get their first conference win of the season.

Dauburs nearly set a new Tiger single match record for blocks as he finished with 15 total blocks and 13 block assists, each just one shy of the record. Additionally, Dauburs hit .588 for the match with 10 kills and no errors on 17 swings. To top his day off, Dauburs put down four service aces to bring his season total to 19.

Throughout the match, both teams were able to dominate through stretches and take advantage of each others mistakes, alternating sets with Pacific taking sets one and three and USC taking sets two and four.

With the match tied at two sets a piece, it looked as if the Tigers were going to continue the trend and dominate the fifth game as they opened the set with five of the first seven points forcing USC to call a timeout. The Tigers were able to keep their lead and push the set to match point at 14-10, but were unable to put the Trojans away as USC stormed back to even the match at 14-14 with back-to-back blocks. Despite the shift in momentum, the Tigers were able to hold together and persevere for the 17-15 win.

In addition to Dauburs, senior Brian Zodrow (Kaneohe, Hawaii) had another solid match as he finished with 17 kills on 48 attacks and seven blocks of his own. As a team, the Tigers outblocked the Trojans 21.0-to-11.0.

For the Trojans, Matt Mosko finished with 17 kills while hitting .132. He was joined by Juan Figueroa in double-figures as Figueroa finished the match with 12 kills. On the day, the Trojans were held to a hitting percentage of just .101 as they were forced into 45 errors.

Pacific is next in action with a conference match at Long Beach State on Friday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m.