SAN DIEGO – It's been a long time since Point Loma Nazarene defeated their Golden State Athletic Conference rivals Fresno Pacific -- the last time, in fact, was October 25, 2003. FPU notched 17-straight wins since.

Unfortunately for the Sea Lions, after five thrilling sets, that streak is now 18.

Though they lost their first three matches of the year and though they aren't in the NAIA top-25 ranking for the first time since 1994, the rumors of the Sunbirds' demise has been greatly exaggerated as they proved in a 3-2 upset win over PLNU Saturday in Golden Gymnasium (27-25, 17-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-11).

The two teams battled for every point but in the long run it was Fresno Pacific logging too many easy points by dropping tips in the middle of Point Loma's court.

The Sea Lions could have and maybe should have claimed the opening set but still were eventually up two sets to one and seemed in position to finally post a “W” against FPU. It wasn't to be, however, as the Sunbirds stormed back to take the fourth and fifth sets and come away with the hard-fought win.

Neither side hit well, FPU .202 and PLNU .192. The Sea Lions had more kills (68-55), assists (63-51), digs (86-70) and aces (5-3) while the Sunbirds enjoyed an advantage in team blocks (13-8).

Tabitha Henken led PLNU with 22 kills with Taylor Lane and Destiny McIntyre adding 13 and 10 winners, respectively. Aimee Bird dished out 51 assists and had 15 digs and Nicole Eiler had a team-best 29 digs in the match. McIntyre added six blocks.

Jessie Alcorn paced FPU with 19 kills with Kathleen Anderson and Martina Gregusova contributing 14 winners.

The Sea Lions, which dropped their first match of the year, fall to 9-1 overall, 1-1 GSAC while Fresno Pacific improves to 5-3, 2-0 GSAC.

PLNU's next contest is Tuesday at Concordia. Match time is set for 7:00 p.m.