By Joann Groff
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s volleyball team is seeking revenge on the only team that damaged its perfect record. And with three dominant wins, especially the most recent against UCLA, the Waves now look ahead to this week’s big rematch with UC Irvine. And they seem pretty sure that the record will be set straight.
“I don’t think we are intimidated by them,” junior outside hitter Fred Winters said. “We are pretty confident. I don’t think it’s much of a mystery — if we play like we did tonight, we will win.”
The Waves took the No. 12 Bruins in four games, 30-22, 26-30, 30-28, 37-35, extending their winning streak to nine games.
This victory keeps Pepperdine as the only undefeated team in the Mountain-Pacific Sports Federation with a perfect 8-0 in conference and an overall record of 10-1.
The momentum from last night’s win will carry them into their highly anticipated match-up with UCI.
And after the performance the team put on at UCLA, it all seems very feasible.
“It was a real solid performance by us, to beat a good opponent on the road,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “They’re a good team, and we beat a good team. We had to come back, and we had some great comebacks. It was a good match to win.”
The players agree.
“I don’t think it was our best match of the year, but I think we are improving a little bit on the road,” sophomore setter John Mayer, who reached a career-high 62 assists at the UCLA match, said. “We had some amazing moments, and some low moments. We had runs where nothing was going right, and runs where everything was clicking.”
Dunphy said Winters stood out on the team, playing “an all-around real good match” against UCLA. Winters led the Waves with 22 kills and six service aces.
“It was a crazy game,” Winters said. “Both teams battled so hard. In the third and fourth games we were down by a lot, but we came back — we didn’t really make hitting errors as much as them. They are definitely better than their record.”
In game four, the Waves started down 0-5, and at one point was 7-14. They fought back to win the final game 37-35.
“UCLA played well and scored some runs early on us,” Dunphy said. “But we came back to win two deuce games. That’s good volleyball when you’re able to come back and win deuce games.”
Sophomore outside hitter Sean Rooney added 17 kills and seven total blocks in the contest and senior libero Dhiraj Coats tacked on nine digs.
“The last two games were tough,” Coats said. “At the tough moments when we needed to play well, we did. We got the win. We played pretty well as a team, and that’s what counted. When it came down to the crucial points of the match, we were calm and got it done.”
Dunphy seconded his player’s sentiments.
“I know I’ve said it before, but we were at our best when our best was needed,” he said. “That’s a great sign.”
Perhaps the momentum for the UCLA game came from the intense three-game win over the University of the Pacific last Saturday, 30-21, 30-21, 38-36.
The final game left fans standing for game-point after game-point. As each team grabbed a point on every possession, the score kept climbing and the Waves kept fighting.
“That was the best game we’ve played this year,” Mayer said. “Our best defense of the season was in that third game — it was just a battle back and forth.”
Dunphy said that battle was a good example of how Pacific’s team plays.
“The final game is a little more indicative of what they are capable of doing,” he said. “(Mike Gledhill) served real well, and they just weren’t able to run their offense as well. Then they started passing better, and it was just a battle to our credit — we came back a litte bit.”
Winters attributed the win to a better team effort by the Waves.
“They had one player that played really well,” Winters said. “We kind of let him do his thing. We won as a team and they were trying with only one guy.”
Another significant conference conquest on the Waves’ schedule was over Stanford. Pepperdine hosted the No. 6 Cardinal, sweeping the match by scores of 30-24, 30-23, 30-16.
“I thought that we played well, yet they didn’t have their best player,” Dunphy said, referring to Cardinal senior outside hitter Curt Toppel. “We would like to play teams when they are at full strength, down the road that helps us. When we play them again, we’ll now what their tendencies are.”
But that will have to wait. The focus now is on the big rematch at UC Irvine.
“Here’s my call: Any Pepperdine fans, if you don’t go early, it’ll be sold out,” Dunphy said. “They are real good. We split with them last year, but this year they are even smoother, they play good defense, serve well, and are a real well-rounded team. It’s going to be some good volleyball.”
February 13, 2003