Whether it was free pizza or the love of the game Firestone Fieldhouse was packed with 2400 fans cheering on the No.-3 Pepperdine’s men volleyball team as it crushed No.-4 USC on Friday. The Waves beat the Trojans in three games 30-28 30-24 30-19. Pepperdine’s record stands at a perfect 6-0.
“This was the best crowd I have ever been around said sophomore setter Kasey Crider. The fans were definitely the MVP of the match.”
In the first game the band riled up the fans teaching them the Wave cheers. Early on Pepperdine held a four-point lead 12-8 but the Trojans came back and tied the score six times at the 14181920 25 and 26-point marks.
Sophomore outside hitter Cory Riecks and senior outside hitter Matt McKee both hammered the Trojans with perfect assists from Crider. Along with his textbook “butter” sets Crider also had several assists in blocking with the middles.
With junior libero Sean Grubbs sliding all over the court and dishing out perfect passes the middle blockers junior Rodnei Santos and sophomore Tyler Jaynes hit a few down. Junior outside hitter Brent Schirripa substituted in when the scoreboard read 26-26 and got a kill putting Pepperdine in the lead.
Senior opposite Paul Carroll had several kills and with the crowd chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oy oy oy he provided a huge roof to put the Waves ahead, 28-26. With the traditional Pepperdine slow clap, the Waves beat USC, 30-28.
Volleyball is a team sport Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. At times each guy played well and at critical times as a team the boys played well.”
In the second game with the score knotted at 21 the Waves called a timeout and afterwards responded with back-to-back kills by Santos and Carroll. Soon Pepperdine was up by four points 26-22 and sealed the game with kills from Jaynes Riecks and Carroll.
The third game was a back-and-forth battle that kept the whole crowd on its feet. In the beginning the Waves were down 6-8 but soon after with big blocks from Crider and Jaynes Pepperdine was up 15-11. USC called a timeout but it didn’t work because the Waves got another easy and well-played point.
The crowd started chanting “Whose house OUR house and the momentum for Pepperdine began to build. There was scrappy playing on both sides of the court with players always hitting the ground. Soon the Waves had a five-point lead, which continued to grow until the score hit 23-17.
USC then netted, giving Pepperdine the serve. Junior outside hitter Sean Pederson substituted in and provided three ace serves. Toward the end of the match, the Trojans started making their own errors, including missed serves, out-of-bounds hitting, hitting a ball in the net and a back row attack.
Crider got a huge block that was followed by another block by Jaynes, pushing the score to 29-18. At 11 points, this was the largest lead of the match for the Waves. The match ended in a W” with a net violation call on USC.
“This match turned out well for us Carroll said. As a team we just concentrated on playing every point and that is how we beat USC.”
Carroll posted 14 kills and a .333 hitting percentage. Pepperdine kept the lead in blocking efforts with 18.5 to USC’s 4.5. Jaynes had eight of those blocks while Santos and Carroll each had seven. Crider had five solo blocks and four of those were in the third set. Throughout the match he had 34 assists and 11 digs. Reicks had 11 kills in the match and McKee delivered eight.
Up next the Waves will play in the annual Alumni Match at noon on Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse. On Wednesday they will then travel north to continue conference play against Pacific.