PACIFIC VOLLEYBALL
By Dave Campbell
Record Correspondent
STOCKTON — Maycie LaBass had three kills and a spectacular save in the fifth and deciding game to help Pacific earn a thrilling 22-25, 25-15, 21-25, 25-22, 16-14 win over visiting Saint Mary’s on Saturday at Spanos Center in front of 1,057 fans.“That’s the West Coast Conference,” Tigers coach Greg Gibbons said. “Every match we go into — especially in the WCC — is a grinder.“I don’t care how much you are up on whomever, everybody is fighting for points. We are constantly preaching the two-percent rule where you get at least one percent more points than your opponents, and we are just trying to find ways to do so because that is how our conference is going right now. That’s just WCC volleyball.”LaBass finished with 12 kills and 12 digs and got her third kill of the final set to give Pacific (12-6, 4-4 WCC) an 11-9 lead. She then took serve and saved her serve with a running save to get the ball back in which allowed the Tigers to go up 12-9 and eventually 13-9.“They felt good,” LaBass said of her three kills in the last set. “I feel like it is my job to put away the ball and help my team in any way I can. If that gets us closer to the win then that’s great. I played my hardest and it felt good to get some kills.”Kimmy Whitson served up 43 assists for the Tigers, but none more significant than the one to give Pacific the lead for good. With the score tied 14-14 in the fifth set she went down low to set up Janie Feldsher who hammered a kill for a 15-14 lead. Alicja Wilk got the kill on the next point to end the match.“It’s about playing every point,” Whitson said. “I just want to put up the best set that I possibly can so they can do the work they know how to do.”Lexi Elman continued her ferocious offense for Pacific with 19 kills and four aces. Teammate Katrin Gotterba had 27 digs.The match saw 33 lead changes and 12 ties.“Every game can be a dogfight,” Elman said. “And you never know when you are going to have to go five.“We did some things good and we did some things bad and St. Mary’s did some things good so it kind of makes sense that we went back and forth.”With the Gaels (6-12, 1-7) taking the first game 25-22, Pacific’s 25-22 second-game win snapped a six-game losing streak for the Tigers. After leading BYU 2-0 on Oct. 8, Pacific lost the next three games and was then swept 3-0 by San Diego on Oct. 10.