With the standing crowd of cheering Waves fans Pepperdine’s men’s volleyball team successfully beat UC Santa Barbara for the second time Saturday night in a grueling five games 30-17 28-30 28-30 30-25 and 15-7.
“It’s always good for the fans when both teams play well senior libero Sean Grubbs said, and it was also a good test for us to come from behind and get the win.”
Pepperdine has won 11 of its last 12 matches. This is also the 10th straight time the Waves have beaten the Gauchos.
“The thing that I believe kept us fired up is how well we play as a team freshman opposite Maurice Torres said, and we play well together so no matter what someone is there to keep you fired up and is making sure that we don’t dwell on a play that went wrong. Teamwork really plays into how well we play.”
Junior middle blocker Tyler Jaynes had 13 blocks and Torres had 10 which led Pepperdine to a season-high 25.5 blocking percentage on the night.
“We blocked 25 balls which is always a huge momentum swing senior outside hitter Brent Schirripia said. Those blocks carried our momentum through the night.”
Torres played one of his strongest games with his stats having a triple-double 16 kills 10 digs and 10 blocks. This is the first triple-double by any Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) player this season.
The Waves’ outside hitters junior Cory Riecks and senior J.D. Schleppenbach each had double-digit kills 18 and 12.
Junior setter Kasey Crider had 55 assists that led the team to a hitting percentage of .317. Grubbs had a team high of 12 sliding digs.
In the first game Pepperdine slaughtered the Gauchos 30-17 with a 5-1 lead courtesy of Rieck’s four kills. Adding to that Torres has three kills to make it an 8-1 run with the scoreboard reading 18-6.
In the second game the Gauchos came back with fire and put up some great competition for the Waves. The game was in UCSB’s favor but Pepperdine tied it up at 27. But with a kill and a strong block Santa Barbara took the game.
The third game was full of three-point leads for the Waves but they couldn’t put the Gauchos away. The game was tied at 15 18 and 24 but after a couple of Pepperdine attacking errors UCSB pulled ahead and won again.
The Waves stepped it up and had a 5-1 run in the fourth game. Though once tied at 8-8 Pepperdine didn’t trail again and won 30-25.
“We had a consistent team effort throughout the entire match senior outside hitter Sean Pederson said. We kept playing hard and fought back even when we were down two games.”
Momentum from the fourth game carried into the fifth where the Waves easily pulled ahead. Kills were being smashed down left and right by the Waves so much so that UCSB couldn’t keep up. The match finally ended 15-7 giving Pepperdine the win.
“We were in complete control in the games we won which was nice Schleppenbach said, and we played really well the entire match.”
The men’s volleyball team will next play Hawaii on Friday March 26 in the Firestone Fieldhouse.
