SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Fresno Pacific (32-0) won a tough one over Point Loma Nazarene (20-10) to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of the NAIA tournament.  The Sunbirds won the defensive battle in four sets, 25-18, 23-25, 25-16 and 25-18.

Coach Dennis Janzen noted on Point Loma, “It was a great defensive match. Point Loma played one of their best defensive matches I've seen all year.”  Point Loma was only the second opponent to take one of the first two sets from the Sunbirds all year, and only the ninth dropped set for the Sunbirds as well.  Coach Janzen continued, “We made plays when we needed them.”

Brittany Pierce and Fabiana Leomil led the Sunbirds in the victory with 19 and 18 kills, respectively, while Thais Julio followed with 10 kills of her own.  #Shu Liu# contributed 48 assists to the win as well.

Point Loma managed to out-block the Sunbirds 8 to 6, but the Sunbirds came up with four solo blocks from Lisa Shilling, Leomil and two from Julio.  Defensively, Tiffany Marinos had another outstanding match with 30 digs to lead the Sunbirds.  Pierce, Liu and Leomil all had double-digit digs as well with 15, 15 and 11, respectively.

Defensively, the Sunbirds did a great job again, holding Point Loma to under 0.250 hitting percentage in every set.  The Sunbirds only dropped under 0.250 in the second set which they narrowly lost to Point Loma.  The Sunbirds finished with a hitting percentage of 0.268 with 66 kills on 157 attempts and 24 errors.

With this victory the Sunbirds have guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals, despite the outcome of tomorrow's match against #12 Morningside, scheduled for 6:00 p.m.  The quarterfinal match will be on Friday, December 5 at 3:45 p.m.