Last Thursday the Waves took down the San Diego Toreros with a 3-2 sets defeat. That win made the Pepperdine’s women’s volleyball team the only team to knock the number one team off in the WCC. Unfortunately today in their last regular season match the Waves did not perform like they did on Thursday.
Saint Mary’s had a 19-7 overall record and an 11-2 WCC record heading into the match while the Waves had a 20-7 overall record and a matching 11-2 WCC record. Those numbers on paper would be indicative of a pretty close match—Saint Mary’s however was able to take down Pepperdine in three sets.
Pepperdine scored the first two points of the first match but Saint Mary’s scored the next four consecutively to take the lead that they held on to for the rest of the set as they established a six point lead (9-3) before the Waves called a time out. After two more points from Saint Mary’s sophomore middle blocker Victoria Adelhelm and junior outside hitter Lilla Frederick were able to score a point for the Waves breaking the long streak of Saint Mary’s points and bringing the score total to 11-4 in the favor of Saint Mary’s. The girls from Saint Mary’s completely dominated the first set ending it 25-13. The Waves were off to a bad start with 10 errors and a -0.021 hitting percentage. Saint Mary’s on the other hand only had three errors and had a 0.19 hitting percentage.
The second set brought about a change of pace with the Waves stepping up their game. After a pretty even exchange of points the score was sitting at 14-11 in favor of Saint Mary’s when the Waves called a time out. The Waves came out of that timeout and scored but Saint Mary’s was able to increase their lead when the Waves couldn’t pick up a couple of serves. That put the score at 18-13 giving Saint Mary’s a five point lead. Soon after the Waves were able to score two points but it wasn’t until freshman outside hitter Kelley Larson was put in the game and scored three points right off the bench that the Waves were able to catch up. This brought the score 18-18. Saint Mary’s called a time out and they came back from that strong establishing the lead that they had lost. The set ended in favor of Saint Mary’s with a score of 21-25 a score much closer than the one from the previous set.
The third set saw an even bigger display of effort from the Waves. It began with a slight Pepperdine lead until Saint Mary’s was able to catch up with an 11-11 score. The remainder of the set remained close with neither team establishing a clear lead. Ultimately the set went to Saint Mary’s with a 25-23 score the closest the Waves ever got to winning set in the entirety of the match. In this set Pepperdine had 12 kills six errors 32 attacks and a hitting percentage of .188. Saint Mary’s had 15 kills six errors 33 attacks and a hitting percentage of .273. Without a doubt this was the most even set with the only clear superiority being in Saint Mary’s hitting percentage. Perhaps if the Waves had played the first and second set like they played the third there would have been a different overall outcome.
This was the last game of the season for Pepperdine’s women’s volleyball team. Now they wait to see if they get to go to NCAA tournament. Being in the top three of the WCC gives the Waves a good chance however it is never known how many teams will be chosen to go.