Pacific debaters again ranked among nation's best

The team won the Northern California Forensics Association's Championship Tournament in the University Division for the third consecutive year, continuing its reputation as one of the region's and nation's most successful forensics teams.  

With this feat, the parliamentary debate team is ranked 8 (out of 165) nationally among universities and colleges that competed in the National Parliamentary Debate Association's regular-season debates this year.

Dallas Phillips '18 and Paul Villa '18 made it to the Final Four round for the second year in a row at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence. This premiere event was held March 29-31 at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. Villa finished as the 14th best debater in the nation, and Phillips finished 5th nationally based on their individual ratings from the tournament.

Debate partners Kayla Gerdes '19/Erika Jauregui '18 and Megan Chatelain '18/Dominic Lesaca '20, made it to the Sweet 16 round.

Earlier that week, the team competed in the National Parliamentary Debate Association's national tournament, also at Lewis and Clark College. The partnerships of Gerdes/Jauregui and Chatelain/Lesaca finished in the round of 32, advancing from a field of 128 partnerships.

Pacific's team finished in 19th place at the tournament, solidifying their 8th place season-long sweepstakes finish. Gerdes ranked as the 17th best debater at the tournament while Phillips and Villa were named to the NPDA All-American team, awarded to seniors who have demonstrated excellence in competition, academics and service.

This caps a season in which Pacific competed in 10 invitational and regional championship tournaments. The debate team finished with three tournament championships, two second-place finishes, five semi-final appearances and seven quarter-final appearances. Pacific's team also won four overall university sweepstakes championships, and a second- and a third-place finish.