Noah Godwin
Assistant Sports Editor
The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team finished strong in the Four Point University Wildcat Classic by beating Nicholls State University 3-2 Saturday after falling earlier in the weekend to No. 18 Louisville and No. 19 Arizona.
The win over Nicholls State, a team from Louisiana that made the NCAA tournament last year, snapped a three-game losing streak for the Waves, who are now 2-3 on the season and ranked No. 18 in the nation.
“We played some good teams who outplayed us,” sophomore outside hitter Sophia Milo said.
“But I know we didn’t play our best,” she said.
Pepperdine had not lost three in a row since 1999. All three losses came to fellow national powers, with the skid starting back Sept. 5 against defending national champion University of Southern California.
Nicholls State almost extended the Waves’ losing streak to four games before Pepperdine took control in the decisive fifth set.
Junior Katy Daly led the way with 22 kills and 17 digs against Nicholls State. Senior Kristen Shultz recorded her third double-double of the year with a 14-kill, 10-dig performance. The Waves ran away with the fifth set 15-4.
Christina Hinds continued her assault on the Pepperdine record books. Her 17 digs against Nicholls State brought her to within 282 digs to become the all-time leader at Pepperdine.
Hinds’ current pace would have her breaking the record with at least five or six games left in the season.
The Waves played some of their most brilliant games against Nicholls State, including that decisive fifth game and a dominating performance in game two that the Waves won 30-19. Pepperdine recorded 17 kills in that game and only two errors for a hitting percentage of .469.
They followed in game three with a 30-16 victory while registering 18 kills and only seven errors for a hitting percentage of .275.
The Colonels of Nicholls State stayed close largely because Pepperdine committed 13 service errors.
“We were attacking pretty well, but we couldn’t seem to put Nicholls State away,” Milo said.
The Waves’ dominating 75-48 advantage in kills proved to be too much for Nicholls State. Five Pepperdine players ended the match with double digits in kills.
The host team, No. 19 Arizona, beat the Waves Friday night in straight games.
All three games were close, and the teams were tied 19 different times, but Arizona always seemed to have an answer when Pepperdine made a run.
Arizona excited the McKale Center in Tuscon with wins of 30-23, 30-24 and 30-25 in the three games against Pepperdine.
Sophia Milo led the Waves with 14 kills. Milo was the only player on the team to reach double digits in kills.
Christina Hinds had another impressive showing, recording 19 digs and a match-high four aces. Pepperdine had never lost to Arizona in Tuscon before this weekend’s match.
The team opened the tournament by losing to Louisville in four games (28-30, 33-31, 30-28, 30-19). Daly and Milo both registered 19 kills in the match, and Daly added 14 digs for yet another double-double.
Melissa Mehlhorn had her most outstanding game of the year with a season-high 59 assists and 17 digs. The match was her first double-double of the year.
Christina Hinds added 20 digs but was overshadowed by Louisville’s defense, which had six players recording at least 10 digs.
Louisville also dominated in the blocks category, tallying a 15-5 advantage in the match.
Louisville’s Jennifer Hoffman took control of the front row and had 10 kills and 11 blocks. Louisville also had five players with double digits in kills, with Bing Sun leading the way with 15.
“These are the caliber of teams we will continue to face, so we just need to step up,” Milo said. The three matches last weekend were part of 11 straight matches that the Waves will play away from Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves do not have another home match until Oct. 15.
Next up for Pepperdine is the University Park Classic in Fort Collins, Colo., where the Waves will play No. 11 Colorado State University and University of Ohio at Moby Arena.
University of Southern Mississippi was scheduled to play the Waves in the Classic, but it was unable to depart before all flights were canceled from Hattiesburg, Miss., due to Hurricane Ivan.
09-16-04