By Jill Oberly
Staff Writer
This Saturday after Firestone Fieldhouse is converted from a basketball court to a volleyball venue, the men’s volleyball team will battle UC Irvine for an improbable third time this season. The No. 8 Anteaters walked away victorious in the first meeting, but the Waves reclaimed the upper hand in the second. The game has a late 8 p.m. start because the Lady Waves will take on Gonzaga in the late afternoon.
On Thursday night, the Waves experienced their only loss this season at Pauley Pavilion against local rival and No. 1-ranked UCLA. Pepperdine and UCLA had seven-game winning streaks on the line.
“Volleyball is not a perfect game,” head coach Marv Dunphy said. “I told the team going into the match that we were not going to have to play perfect to win. But also that they (UCLA) were not going to have to play perfect to win either.”
The Waves seemed to have a hard time getting their momentum started as UCLA took the first two games 30-28, 30-28. Picking up momentum, the Waves came back to win game three 30-28.
“The first three games could have gone either way,” Dunphy said. “We easily could have taken game two and they just as easily could have taken game three.”
Perhaps showing its most consistent play of the match, Pepperdine took a 27-22 lead in game four. Strong play by freshman Sean Rooney and junior middle blocker Brad Keenan helped seal the Waves’ 30-25 win of game four, sending the match to a fifth and final game.
The final game was tied at 13 all and the Waves were able to fight off two match points to keep themselves in the match. However, a third proved to be too much as the Bruins benefited from a Pepperdine hitting error to win the game 17-15 and take the match.
UCLA, giving Pepperdine a taste of what to expect later in the season, extended its winning streak to eight games and improved to 10-1 on the season and 5-0 in MPSF play.
“We didn’t play as well as we’re capable of playing,” Dunphy said. “We had too many serving errors throughout the match, which is uncharacteristic of the team. They (UCLA) had something to do with that.
“We had 24 serving errors,” Dunphy added. “That’s 24 points. Had it been 24 serving errors and 24 aces it would have been a different story.”
All-American Brook Billings of USC, highly touted and not lacking in the confidence department, for all his accolades wasn’t able to lift the Trojans over the No. 2 ranked Pepperdine men’s volleyball team Tuesday night in Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves swept the match in three games.
Easily showing that they were the dominant team, the Waves took game one 29-25.
The Waves had a tough time knocking off the Trojans in game two but rallied from a seven-point deficit to win the game. The Trojans fell apart, and the Waves took the final game easily.
February 14, 2002