March 2, 2005

Northridge, Calif. - The No. 10 Pacific men's volleyball team fell at No. 9 Cal State Northridge in four sets on Wednesday, March 2. With the loss the Tigers fell to 11-9 overall and 5-7 in MPSF action. The Matadors improved to 9-9 overall and 6-8 in conference play. With the win, CSUN evened the season series at 1-1.

Set scores for the match were: 26-30, 17-30, 30-21, 27-30.

Neither team hit well in the match as the Tigers barely outhit the Matadors, .169-to-.167. The most lopsided sets of the match, set two and three, saw each team hit in the negative with the Matadors holding the Tigers to -.074 in set two. Pacific reversed its fortunes in set three, containing the Matadors attack, holding CSUN to a -.069 hitting percentage.

Despite the low hitting percentages, senior Nils Dauburs (Riga, Latvia) posted a match-high 15 kills while hitting an impressive .520. In addition, Dauburs dominated at the net defensively, posting 11 blocks including two solo efforts. Dauburs finished the night with 21.5 points. Seniors Brian Zodrow (Kaneohe, Hawaii) and Mauricio Brizuela (Asuncion, Paraguay) each reached double-figure kills, finishing with 12 and 10, respectively. Freshman Mike Gonzales (Richmond, Calif.) tallied a match-high 15 digs from the libero position.

For the Matadors, Matt Bellante had a team-high 11 kills with a .409 hitting percentage. He also added six blocks on the night. Cary Hanson added 10 kills for CSUN as the Matadors were able to beat the Tigers despite having just 46 kills to Pacific's 51.

The Tigers will next be in action on Thursday, March 3, as they travel to Santa Barbara to take on the No. 5 Gauchos. Match time is scheduled for 7:00 pm.