DAVID TESIC/Assistant Photo Editor
GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The No.-2 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team played host to defending national champion University of California-Irvine Wednesday night in front of a big crowd at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves got into a 2-0 hole before winning game three, but eventually lost the match in four games, 3-1. The loss was the first of the season for the Waves, who fell to 4-1.
“The game is a matter of serving and receiving, and we lost the serving and receiving battle,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “They made the plays and we didn’t. It’s as simple as that.”
Pepperdine played without junior opposite Paul Carroll for the third consecutive match. Carroll suffered a fractured right hand, his non-hitting hand, during a recent practice and is expected to miss at least four weeks.
The Waves got off to a solid start and looked as if they were going to take game one easily when leading 17-12 after junior outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach smacked one of his 16 kills. However, the Anteaters fought back to tie the game at 30 a piece by going on a 4-1 run after Pepperdine led, 29-27. Pepperdine was close to clinching the game again when it had a game point, 31-30, but the Anteaters won the next three points to snatch the game, 33-31.
“We’re a young team, making hitting errors and serving errors,” senior setter Jonathan Winder said. “It’s tough for a young team to continue to compete throughout all 30 points.”
Pepperdine looked deflated in game two after letting game one slide through its fingers and didn’t get closer than two points behind. The Waves hit a dismal .079 for the game, eventually dropping it, 30-21.
After regrouping from being down two games, Pepperdine came out much more energized in game three and roared to lead by eight points,19-11. Irvine didn’t give up as it closed the deficit to within one point, 27-26, but a monster block by junior Mark Hulse made it 29-26 followed by a game-winning block from Winder and Hulse to close out game three, 30-27.
“I think it hit us that it was the most important game of the match,” said sophomore Sean Grubbs. “We hit a lot of balls in and didn’t make as many hitting errors.”
Pepperdine’s momentum didn’t last long as the Anteaters forced an early timeout by Dunphy after leading, 6-2. The Waves were playing from behind the entire game and couldn’t string points together but got within two points, 28-26, thanks to another block by Hulse. Pepperdine was able to save one match point but couldn’t hold the Anteaters, who closed out the match with a 30-27 win in game four.
The Anteaters were led by junior Taylor Wilson, who notched 24 kills, and redshirt freshman Anthony Spittle, who tallied 68 assists and 9 digs.
The Waves took both regular season matches last season against the Anteaters before losing to them in the MPSF conference championship game. Pepperdine then went on to lose in the national semifinals while Irvine won the national championship.
Earlier in the week, Pepperdine scored two wins on its first conference road trip of the season by defeating Pacific and Stanford last weekend.
In the Pacific match, the Waves were led by Schleppenbach with 17 kills, and freshman Cory Rieks also notched 17 kills. Junior Matt McKee also chipped in with a career-high 16 kills. Junior Mark Hulse had a team-high 9 block assists.
Senior setter Jonathan Winder became Pepperdine’s all-time leader in assists with 48 assists against Stanford to bring his career total to 3,952 assists in his career. Schleppenbach pounded a career-high 21 kills and Grubbs had 14 digs.
Pepperdine is back on the court Friday night when it hosts No.-5 UCLA at 7 p.m.
“We have to make sure we look at the scouting report and to continue to compete even when we’re not playing well,” Winder said.
Game 4
Irvine took early lead 6-2 before Dunphy took a timeout to try and regroup before Irvine grabbed the momentum. Timeout didn’t do much as Irvine looked as though they wanted to end it in 4 games. 9-4. 11-5. 12-6. 13-7 by a great play by schleppenbach who played a drop shot over the net to take the point. 14-9. Net violation by McKee gave Irvine a 16-9 lead. 17-11 lead. 18-12. A huge block by hulse and rieks got the waves within 4 at 18-14. 21-16 Irvine lead. Dunphy took a timeout at 22-17 to try and regroup to send it a game 5. Time out didn’t help as Irvine went up 25-18. Waves won three straight points to get it to 25-21 and Irvine called a timeout. Irvine won the next two points to 27-21. 27-22. Mark Hulse block got the waves within 4 at 27-23. Schleppenbach kill gets it to 27-24 and Irvine called timeout. Service error to 28-24 and then 28-25. Hulse huge block to 28-26. Wave violation to 29-26. Waves save the first match point to 29-27. Irvine wins 30-27. The comeback wasn’t quite good enough.
Game 3
Waves came out hot and looked much more energinzed in game 3 to take a 4-1 lead, forcing Irvine to take a timeout. Looked much more energized….7-3. 10-5 early lead for the Waves. 11-6. 13-7 lead to Pepperdine and Irvine took its last timeout of the game. 14-9 pepperdine. Winder’s ace gave em a 15-9 lead for the Waves. 16-9 Pepperdine after a setting error by Irvine. Waves looked in control at 19-11 with momentum and playing well. Irvine fought back to 21-16 before Dunphy took a timeout to try and disrupt the Irvine momentum. 21-18 and the Pepperdine got back on track to take a 5 point lead 24-19. 26-22 after a kill from mckee with assist from Winder. Irvine climbed back within two at 27-25 and Dunphy called timeout to regroup before the final stretch. 28-26 Pep. Huge blcok to get it to 29-26. A blcok by winder and Hulse ended the game for the Waves 30-27.
Game one
In game one the two sides exchanged points early in game one but the Waves emerged to take a 12-9 lead. Pepperdine took a five point lead 17-12 after a monster kill by junior outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach before letting the lead slip to 22-19 with a couple errors. Irvine climbed back to trail by only two at 24-22 and Head Coach Marv Dunphy called timeout. A service error by Irvine got it to 26-23 and an ace by Schleppenbach got it to 27-23. The Anteaters didn’t give up despite three service errors late in the game to win game one 33-31.
Big block by Irvine got it to 28-26 back within two. And then a violation got it to 28-27. Service error by Irvine got it to 29-27. Service error by Pep to 29-28. 29-29. Irvine fought back hard. 30-30. The Waves led the whole game til the end. 3 straight service errors by Irvine at end of game. Irvine came back to win 3 straight points to win 33-31.
Game two
Irvine got off to a solid start to take a 9-6 lead in game two. The Waves looked demoralized after giving away game one. The Waves never got closer than two points after trailing 9-6. After a Rieks kill that sailed out of bounds the Anteaters led 19-15. The Waves fought back to trail 20-18 but Pepperdine couldn’t get any closer, dropping game two 30-21.
Huge kill by Taylor Wilson gave Irvine a 12-8 lead and Dunphy called timeout. Irvine maintained the 4 point lead to 14-10 before a pep block to 14-11. 15-11. Service error by Wilson got it to 17-15 Irvine. After a Rieks kill that sailed out of bounds the waves were down 19-15. 19-17 Irvine. 20-18 Irvine. 22-18 Irvine after a violation. Irvine took largest lead of the game 25-18 when a pepperdine kill sailed out of bounds. 25-20 after schleppenbach kill. But Pepperdine couldn’t get any closer and dropped game two 30-21.
Marv Dunphy
“I think it was a case of Irvine wasn’t playing very well at the beginning and then they played pretty steady. They hit some good serves and I give them some credit, they knocked us off the net a little bit.”
“The game is a matter of serving and receiving and we lost the serving and receiving battle,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “They made the plays and we didn’t, it’s as simple as that.”
Sean Grubbs
“We just let up, we didn’t fight as much as we should have.”
“I think it hit us then that it was the most important game of the match, we hit a lot of balls in and didn’t make as many hitting errors.”
Jonathan Winder
“We’re a young team, making errors and serving errors and passing and it’s tough for a young team to continue to compete throughout all 30 points.”
“It was a sense of desparation and we didn’t play with that in games 1 and 2,” “It was a game we had to play at a certain level in order to win.”
“We have to make sure we look at the scouting report and to continue to compete even when we’re not playing well.”
01-24-2008