Despite suffering their first loss of the season Friday at Stanford the No.-3 Waves brought the heat Wednesday night sweeping No.-8 UCLA 31-29 30-26 30-25 at Firestone Fieldhouse.
UCLA got the first point of the match with a missed serve by Pepperdine. The Waves trailed the Bruins until junior middle blocker Rodnei Santos and sophomore Tyler Jaynes tied the game at 13 with a big roof. Soon after junior outside hitter Brent Schirripa subbed in for senior outside hitter Matt McKee and the Waves began to hammer out the points.
“That was a turn around point in this game when Schirripa came in and played really well said Head Coach Marv Dunphy.With a kill and a major block, Schirripa put the Waves in the lead at 29-28. Following a time out, UCLA tied the game, but Schirrripa provided a roll shot to win the game for Pepperdine, 31-29.
We cut our errors and started hitting the court Schirripa said. This challenged UCLA and improved our game.”
The Bruins opened the second game with an ace to take the early lead. Thanks to some mistakes by UCLA the Waves managed to tie the game at 5.
Powerful serves by sophomore outside hitter Cory Riecks combined with solid defense allowed the Waves to climb into the lead 11-8. Later on senior opposite Paul Carroll brought the thunder from down under with sophomore middle blocker Tyler Jaynes for some timely blocks giving Pepperdine a 20-17 edge.
On game point McKee came back in for Schirripa and delivered a kill sealing a 30-26 victory for the Waves.
In the third game Pepperdine grabbed the first point as Schirripa gave a facial to UCLA off a big hammer.
Pepperdine called a time out with the game tied at 13 and eventually went ahead by 3 points with a series of smooth plays. The Waves’ lead climbed to 28-23 courtesy of a kill by Carroll. Crider who had been sliding all over the floor to get perfect sets gave Carroll butter for the match point and a Pepperdine sweep.
The Waves will be back in Firestone Fieldhouse on Friday at 7 p.m. to take on No.-3 UC Irvine.
“I think that UCI is the best team in college volleyball Dunphy said. We will have to do everything we can and just play better [than them].”