ZACH ENGLUND
Sports Assistant
Just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team just keeps on winning. Sweeping Rutgers and UC San Diego last week, the Waves improved to 18-1 on the season and have won 15 straight games. With each passing victory, the team further solidifies its No. 1 ranking and status as the best squad the nation has to offer.
One man not getting caught up in the Wave’s apparent invincibility is Head Coach Marv Dunphy, who insists the streak is merely a number.
“When I look at the streak, it means nothing,” he said. “It’s not really a measure of this team or our opponents, and we have all of the most talented teams coming up on our schedule, both on the road and at home.”
Pepperdine’s first victory of the week came against the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders Thursday night at the Firestone Fieldhouse. The match was between two teams headed in opposite directions, as the Raiders (2-19) lost their last 15 games heading into Thursday’s match.
The Waves opened the game on a 10-3 run and never looked back, hitting .561 for the match and winning convincingly in all three sets, 3-0 (30-19, 30-21, 30-24).
Junior outside hitter Paul Carroll led the onslaught with a game-high 17 kills, while senior outside hitter John Grobe hit a career-best .611 and scored 12 kills.
Taking their show on the road, the Waves traveled to La Jolla to face UC San Diego, beating the Tritons (5-17) in swift fashion, 3-0 (30-18, 30-25, 30-16), on Saturday night.
Though they normally excel on the offensive end, the Waves relied on their defense in game one to overcome .276 hitting, using 6.5 blocks to proper them to a 1-0 lead in the match.
Pepperdine wasted no time taking control of game two, taking an 11-3 lead from which the Tritons never rallied back from, winning the set and setting up yet another sweep during the win streak.
Sensing victory, the Waves came out aggressive in the third set and went for the kill, hitting an unbelievable .731 to go along with 19 kills in the game.
Carroll and senior middle blocker Tom Hulse each recorded 10 kills, while sophomore outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach added nine kills of his own in the relatively easy match. Hulse also had a match-high six blocks for the Waves, who finished with 13.5 blocks in the contest.
As the team heads into the last third of the regular season, Dunphy knows that this is the time to fine-tune for the playoffs, as the schedule gets a lot tougher from here on out.
“We’ve filled some holes in our schedule playing a couple of these teams we beat recently,” he said. “We’re getting to the meat of our season, and we’ll have to be good at the end.”
Even though the Waves are playing at such a high level, Dunphy knows there is still room for improvement, as the team still has not met the standard set by the coaching staff for where they want to be come playoff time. Although they have been gradually improving throughout the season, Dunphy understands that the last bit of tweaking can often be the hardest.
“The last five percent is the tough part,” he said. “It’s just a little way to go to be better, but it’s a significant gap that we have to fill.
The Waves next match is on Saturday night, as they take the road to face Long Beach State, the only team that has managed to beat Pepperdine this season, winning a nail-biter back in January. Since then, the Waves have improved significantly; but, according to Dunphy, so have the 49ers.
“They just beat UCLA and barely lost to Irvine, so they’re a much better team then when we played them before,” he said. “We’re a little different, but they’re completely different. I know their personnel and they’re real good.”
03-22-2007