This weekend brought testing times for Waves women’s volleyball as the team dropped both their games. The Waves were facing adversity going against strong competition and playing both games away from Firestone Fieldhouse. They first matched up against San Diego the No. 17-ranked team in the nation 2-3 (25-20 20-25 22-25 25-19 12-15).
The Waves held their own throughout most of the match. Pepperdine which had been starting games well this season continued in similar fashion against the Toreros. They gained the lead early and kept it going with several kills from junior outside hitter Rachel Lumsden aiding the effort.
After their strong start the Waves dropped the two subsequent sets but tied things up again in the fourth. In the defining fifth set Pepperdine had the Toreros struggling 11-10. Nonetheless with the home-court advantage the Toreros were cheered on by a sold-out crowd that saw them get three kills and two blocks to finish off the Waves.
Despite the loss Lumsden had a team-high 18 kills senior outside hitter Julie Rubenstein had 11 kills and 17 digs and freshman middle blocker Kim Hill recorded 10 kills and six blocks. Both San Diego and Pepperdine were near equals in their statistics from the game. The Toreros beat the Waves on hitting percentage .193 to the Waves .182. Pepperdine had a 7-2 advantage in service aces and San Diego had a 12-10 blocking advantage. Both teams recorded 86 digs.
When it was all said and done San Diego’s home court advantage certainly helped.
“We try not to let the fans affect our play and I don’t think they did Hill said. It was mainly because we didn’t finish what we started. We didn’t execute in that fifth set.”
After a close loss to San Diego the Waves went up to San Francisco to face the undefeated Dons (7-0 in WCC play). The Waves who haven’t lost much this season fell to San Francisco (17-4 7-0) for only the second time in the schools’ 47 meetings the first time since 1993.
“San Francisco is a senior-laden team said Head Coach Nina Matthies. They have good chemistry with each other and whenever you play a team at home in the West Coast Conference you can always expect they will play well.”
The Waves who were once again on the road battled valiantly in the first two sets versus the Dons 1-3 (24-26 25-23 16-25 24-26). However in the third set the Dons were able to gain the lead early on and never let go. In the fourth set the Waves positioned themselves to make a heroic comeback. Pepperdine gained a 22-17 lead deep in the fourth set after two Rubenstein kills ignited a 4-0 run. However San Francisco came fighting back and kept Pepperdine cold offensively as the Dons recorded a few clutch blocks to earn the win.
“Our strategy is to win Matthies said. Sometimes you’re great and other times you’re simply not. We had several difficulties this weekend including our limited bench.”
The Waves plan to learn from these past two losses and move on in usual winning fashion as they go up against Santa Clara tonight at 7 p.m. and Saint Mary’s on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“We’ve seen everybody in our conference once now Matthies said. Now we’re at home this weekend so our freshmen are more ready.”
The Santa Clara match is the annual “Dig for the Cure” contest designed to raise awareness and funds for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research. Fans are encouraged to pledge a dollar for every dig recorded.
“This is certainly a great cause around the country Matthies said. Last year our conference did this for the first time and raised over $16000. As a team our goal is to raise $1000. I would ask the fans to help us reach this goal.”