LA JOLLA, Calif. – In its third match of the UC San Diego Invitational, UC San Diego women's volleyball dropped a five-set marathon, 3-2, to Pacific on Saturday afternoon in LionTree Arena.
 
The Tritons moved to 5-4 on the season and 0-3 in the weekend tournament—all in five sets. With the win, the Tigers improved to 5-4 on the season as well.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
For the third consecutive match, the Tritons played to a deciding fifth set but could not come away with the victory, falling 21-25, 25-20, 25-21, 16-25, 11-15. 
 
UC San Diego held the advantage in blocks 10-5, and a slight advantage in digs 65-63, while the Tigers outhit the Tritons, .259 compared to .186. 
 
Ava McInnes paced the offense for UC San Diego, tallying a match-high 17 kills and also led the team with a match-high seven blocks. Izzi Strand notched her sixth double-double of the season, finishing with 37 assists and a team-best 15 digs. Naya Dong (13) and Natalie Repetti (10) also tallied double-digit digs.  
 
After the Tritons took an early 3-0 lead in set one, Pacific went on a 7-1 scoring run to take the lead. UC San Diego battled back to a 10-10 tie and the teams traded points to 16-all before a three-point run gave UOP the lead again. The Tigers closed out the set with three consecutive points to take the opening set, 25-21.
 
It was all Tritons to open the second set, jumping out to an early 5-1 lead. The teams battled back-and-forth before another 5-1 run gave UC San Diego a commanding 16-9 lead and the Tritons never looked back, cruising to a 25-20 victory and evening the match, 1-1.
 
The third set remained tightly contested to the midpoint, before a 7-point run gave the Tritons a comfortable lead, 21-17. Pacific pulled within one but UC San Diego closed out the set on a 4-1 scoring run to win, 25-21, and lead the match, 2-1.
 
The teams traded scoring runs to open the fourth set to a 7-7 tie before Pacific pulled away with a 7-point scoring run to lead, 13-7. The Tigers added another four-point run to take control of the set and win, 25-16, to force a deciding set. 
 
Pacific carried the momentum into the final frame, leading 10-5 halfway through the set. The Tritons rallied to within two 13-11, but the Tigers closed out the set with back-to-back points to secure the five-set victory.
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Lydia Burts (Liberty)
Trinity Watts (Liberty)
Uxue Guereca (New Mexico)
Kali Wolf (New Mexico)
Ava McInnes (UC San Diego)
Alexa Edwards (Pacific)
 
TRITON TIDBITS

• It was the third time during the weekend that the Tritons battled into a deciding fifth set. UC San Diego is currently 1-3 in five-set contests. 
• Ava McInnes was named to her second all-tournament team of the season.
• UC San Diego falls to 0-2 in the all-time series with Pacific.

UP NEXT
UC San Diego will return to the road to wrap up its non-conference schedule with the Thin Air Challenge in Colorado. The Tritons will face San Francisco in a neutral contest on Friday at 10 a.m. PT and take on the host Air Force in their second match of the day at 5 p.m. PT. UC San Diego will then travel north to take on Denver on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT. Live streams and live statistics will be available via UCSDTritons.com.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.