Pac-12 all-stars close out the trip with another five-setter

BEIJING – The Pac-12 All-Star Team closed out its foreign tour Thursday with another five set contest , falling to the Beijing professional team 25-14, 18-25, 16-25, 25-22 and 13-15. It was the fifth time in seven matches that the team played five sets, and team finished the trip with a winning 4-3 record overall.

“We have had a lot of people not completely healthy on the trip,” Moore said. “Tonight I wanted to play everyone that could play. The kids battled and went hard to go five but came out on the short end.”

Hardly breaking a sweat, the Pac-12 All-Star Team’s started with a 25-14 victory in the first set with a strong blocking performance and a balanced attack that included five players with two or more kills. It was the first time since the team’s first match that it had managed to go ahead 1-0.

Capitalizing on Pac-12 hitting errors and back-to-back aces, though, Beijing ran up a 9-4 lead in the second set. The all-stars battled back to tie the score at 13 on a series of kills and blocks by Washington’s Melanie Wade. With the score knotted at 15, the local team took control at the net, winning the set (25-18) and tying the match.

Strong hitting by Beijing continued in the third set as they jumped out to 13-4 lead and never let the all-stars back in the game.

The fourth set was just the opposite of the third, and the Pac-12 built an early lead with strong serving and greater attacking accuracy. A kill by Stanford’s Brittany Howard, who finished the match with a team-leading 13 kills, gave the Conference squad a 17-11 lead. A comeback by Beijing fell short with Howard and UCLA’s Karsta Lowe registering kills and blocks to close the match 25-22.

After falling behind 3-0, the teams traded leads until kills by Howard and Utah’s Chelsey Schofield gave the Pac-12 a 12-10 edge in the final set and forced Beijing to call a timeout. After the timeout, the local professional team capitalized on Pac-12 miscues and won the match.

The Pac-12 team will leave early Friday to fly to Los Angeles after 11 days in China.