In the past two weeks the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team avoided the proverbial setback against weaker competition. Riding a two game win streak the Waves dismantled rival LMU to sweep the season series in a 3-0 drubbing. With four games left in the regular season and an outside shot at the league championship the team took their talents on the last road trip of the year heading to Portland and Spokane. Against Portland it seemed the travel had finally caught up with the girls as Pepperdine narrowly avoided a major upsetting escaping with a 3-2 decision. The woeful Gonzaga Bulldogs fell to a rejuvenated squad just two days later in Spokane. Despite the five game winning streak the only things on anyone’s minds in the 90263 were the last two games of the season—one last chance for the Lady Waves to make a push for a title against the top two teams in the conference.
That chance came in Malibu on Thursday night as nationally ranked San Diego showed up for battle at the Firestone Fieldhouse in front of a packed house. Earlier in the season the Torrero’s embarrassed Pepperdine in San Diego winning easily 3-0 on Oct. 23. This time however the Waves came to play. Pepperdine punched their opponents in the mouth right out of the gate winning the first game 25-21 in a very close affair. Sophomore outside hitter Victoria Adelhelm was solid as always in a very versatile effort recording three kills and three assists. But the star of the first game clearly was freshman setter Kellie Woolever who recorded an astounding 11 assists on 25 Pepperdine points.
Woolever repeated her stat line in the 2nd game though it wasn’t enough to continue the Wave’s offensive assault. San Diego tied things up at one a piece with a 25-17 win. Chloe Ferrari and Kelsi Myers led the attack for the opponents. With things tied up one a piece the third game of the match proved to be not only pivotal to the night’s outcome but the entire season as a whole.
And it was clear both teams were aware of the stakes and hand. Woolever continued to dazzle with 14 more assists helping to distribute the offense around to the rest of her teammates. San Diego fought hard and the match went back and forth eventually leading to a 17-17 stalemate. But Pepperdine separated itself just enough to secure a two point advantage at the perfect time winning the set 25-23 and moving within one game of a monumental upset.
But the Torrero’s rose to the occasion in the fourth set staving off a relentless Wave’s attack to prolong the match in a 29-27 battle. The game went back and forth like a seesaw neither team wanting to relinquish their small hold on the lead and yet neither team seemingly wanting to put the game away either. Eventually SDU took advantage in overtime and kept their outright conference title hopes alive. In typical WCC fashion the battle at the top of the totem pole came down to a fifth and final game.
Pepperdine came out with a sense of urgency not seen throughout the entire season in the fifth match. They raced out to an early lead and kept it all the way until they were up 14-10 one point away from victory. San Diego called timeout to try to slow down their momentum. Coming out of the timeout sophomore middle blocker Brittany Clark served up an Ace to secure the win and delay San Diego’s title hopes.
It may be too early to call but the epic five set match that took place tonight may go down as one of the greatest games in Pepperdine women’s volleyball history. The absolute roller coaster of emotions that came and went with every spike of the ball was only multiplied by the severity of the stakes at hand. Pepperdine now has a chance to become Co-Champions of the league with a win against third place Saint Mary’s in their final game of the season. They’ll need a little help along the way ironically from rival LMU who must defeat San Diego in order for Pepperdine to win the league. It’s hard to imagine a better way for this crazy volleyball season to end than on the last night of league play. Regardless no one can take away the accomplishment of what the Lady Waves did tonight.
Their next and last match of the regular season will be Saturday Nov. 20 against Saint Mary’s at 1 p.m. in Malibu.