By Joann Groff
Assistant Sports Editor
Pepperdine’s men’s volleyball team will enter Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play next week riding on the momentum of a win over Cal Baptist last Thursday. Pepperdine edged the Lancers in five games during a non-conference match in Riverside.
The match came down to the final game, with scores of 28-30, 33-35, 30-26, 30-26, and 15-12. Pepperdine took an 8-4 lead in the deciding game, but the score tied up again at 11-11. Junior Fred Winters came back with a kill that turned the tables. Pep then took four more points for the win. Winters had two service aces and eight counts of both digs and blocks.
“I played my best, a lot of guys did — it was a total team effort,” said Winters, who had a high-match 25 kills. “As a team, it was our best performance of the season. We lost the first two, I think we were surprised they were as good as they were, but we came to play in the last three.”
Sophomore outside hitter Sean Rooney led the Waves with 22 kills. Rooney was tabbed “Freshman of the Year” by the American Volleyball Coaches Association at the conclusion of the 2002 season.
“I think we came out expecting to play a good team,” Rooney said. “They came out hard and played really tough, got up 2-0. We had to play tough to come back and we did just that.”
Senior middle blocker Brad Keenan, the AVCA’s “Player of the Year,” contributed nine kills and eight blocks to the Waves’ victory.
“The Cal (Baptist) game was sold out. Their gym was filled,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “It was a real good environment to play in, similar to big games here at the Fieldhouse.”
This victory brings Pepperdine to its 2-1 record after a strong season-opener against the University of La Verne and a tough 0-3 loss to UC Irvine. The games were played in the four-team, two-day Millie and Severson Tournament.
The men’s 2003 season started off with an overwhelming 30-17, 30-23, 30-24 win over the Leopards.
In the match-up with La Verne, Rooney claimed a high-match total of 14 kills. He also tallied six digs and four blocks.
“We played good for our first game,” Rooney said. “There weren’t any big surprises.” Keenan and sophomore outside hitter Mike Gledhill added seven kills to the Waves’ win.
The team fell to UC Irvine in three games during the championship match of the tournament at Firestone Fieldhouse.
Rooney and Winters both totaled nine kills, but were overshadowed by the Anteaters’ ability to convert the points.
“The Irvine game was a good match,” Dunphy said. “I was pleased with the caliber of the opponent. Irvine is real good this year — we didn’t play our best, but one of the reasons we didn’t play our best is because they played so well.”
The Waves will begin their 22-match MPSF schedule tomorrow at the University of Southern California.
“We open our league on Friday at USC . . . this game, it’s going to be big,” Dunphy said. “This is a really important match.”
The team says it knows the significance of the match, and sets its hopes on starting conference play off right.
“We want to win the first game,” Winters said. “There’s a lot of time between games, so guys get restless. We just want the week to go by and get to the game. They’ve got some new players and a new coach, they are going to be tough.”
Starting the new season has had its challenges, after graduating eight players, four being starters. Dunphy says that they are working through the challenges accompanied with having a new team and new faces.
“We have standards in everything we do, in practice, in games,” Dunphy said. “So far we haven’t met the standards that we are familiar with, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in one day. I’m optimistic we’ll stay in the mix. That’s the plan anyway, to be the best we can.”
January 16, 2003