National Invitational Volleyball Tournament : Pacific Recaptures Its No. 1 Form

Losing for the first time in more than a year was all the incentive the University of the Pacific’s women’s volleyball team needed to rededicate itself to winning. It was a lesson the Tigers applied with ferocious intent Saturday night.

Pacific beat Brigham Young University, 15-9, 15-13, 15-6, to win the National Invitational Volleyball Tournament in front of 800 at Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. The win solidified Pacific’s No. 1 national ranking and soothed the sting of their loss to UCLA last Tuesday, a loss that snapped a 34-game winning streak.

“If you look back at the last time we lost, it was to UCLA at the NIVT last year, I think on Oct. 7,” said John Dunning, Pacific’s coach. “It was a year without losing. The reason you win is because you don’t like the taste of defeat. We haven’t tasted defeat in a long time.”

Pacific seemingly didn’t forget the unpleasant aftertaste of a loss, as it barreled through this tournament. BYU was the defending tournament champion and Pacific is the defending national champion.

The Tigers (13-1) had few lapses against the third-ranked Cougars (18-2) and those smoothed themselves out. The Cougars were ahead 12-7 in the second game before scoring five straight points.

UCLA and USC played for third place Saturday night, after both teams lost in the afternoon. UCLA lost to BYU, 5-15, 17-15, 15-12, 16-14. USC lost to UOP, 15-13, 15-7, 15-17, 15-2.

Earlier, UCLA won the third place match, 15-8, 16-14, 15-3. For the Bruins (14-4), the BYU game was draining.

“We wanted to beat BYU so badly that when we lost it was such a let down,” UCLA captain Lori Zeno said. “We let down against USC. I know we were supposed to put it behind us, but no human can do that. We didn’t.”

It was a point that was not lost on Zeno’s coach.

“There certainly wasn’t the intensity we had this afternoon,” UCLA Coach Andy Banachowski said. “I thought our intensity level really dropped off in the match. We played well enough to win.”

It seemed as if the Trojans (8-6) were doing that, at least in the second game. USC held a 12-2 lead but lost its drive and the lead with it.

“We just thought we had them, and you never do that against UCLA,” Christine Brigman of USC said. “Our passing stopped, everything stopped. Before we knew it, it was the start of the third game.”

UCLA was moving and attacking well, its front line finding holes in USC blocking schemes. The Bruins combined for 66 kills in the match. Zeno led with 20 and freshman Samantha Shaver had 14.

Erbe is looking for such poise. He has four freshmen and no seniors on his team, and he’s tiring of talking about it.

“I’m tired of using inexperience and youth as an excuse,” he said. “It’s a reality. But, we did what we were supposed to do on paper--we beat UCSB and lost to two top five teams. On the whole, what I’m disappointed in is the fact that we weren’t able to sustain our intensity and our momentum when we got leads.”

In other consolation matches, University of Texas-Arlington beat Fresno State in the fifth-place match, 12-15, 15-3, 15-9, 15-12. UC Santa Barbara beat Loyola Marymount for seventh place, 15-8, 15-7, 11-15, 15-8.