The Nevada Sagebrush

The Pacific Tigers (1-0) spoiled Nevada’s season opener Friday night, beating the Wolf Pack 3-0 at the Virginia Street Gym.

Nevada (0-1) lost the first game by a wide margin, 30-19. The following two games went down to the wire, with Nevada losing 30-28 both times.

Games two and three were similar with the Wolf Pack fighting to a 28-27 lead in each game only to give up three consecutive points to the Tigers.

“We need to really work on those pressure situations in practice and just get used to putting balls away,”senior Karly Sipherd said. “It was nothing they did to us. I think it was what we did to ourselves.”

Nevada had an attack percentage of only .124 compared to Pacific’s .265 and had trouble controlling Pacific’s outside hitters, despite having three players around the net who were six feet or taller.

Three of Pacific’s players, Kara Uhl, Alexa Anderson, and Meagan MimMack, made it to double figures in kills, with Uhl getting a match high 18 kills.

“Blocking was definitely one of our weakest points tonight,”Nevada Head Coach Devin Scruggs said.

Scruggs also said the team missed outside left hitter Allison Hernandez, who sat out most of the game because of an injury.

She said the gap Hernandez left forced her to rearrange the lineup and damaged the team’s cohesiveness.

“It obviously hurt us with Karly (Sipherd), because we didn’t get to have her in the middle the whole time and she’s probably one of the best middles in the conference and she is having to play outside for us,”Scruggs said. “But that’s what you have to do when you’re on a team.”

Teal Ericson and Sipherd led the team in kills with 12 each, but neither was very accurate with Ericson hitting a dismal .081 and Sipherd doing only slightly better with .100.

Senior setter Ashley Miller had 37 assists for the match.

The Wolf Pack will get a chance to redeem itself Aug. 31 in the Asics Classic in Malibu, Calif.

It faces Pepperdine, a team that qualified for the NCAA tournament last season. The match begins at 5 p.m.

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