By Joann Groff
Assistant Sports Editor
Sometimes it’s tough on top.
Opponents always come ready to play those high-ranking teams, and sometimes the No. 1 squad gets a little too comfortable.
The players of the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team say they prefer to not be the top-ranked team, but it seems they are handling the pressure of being the No. 1 team in the nation in just the right way.
With only a couple minor bumps in their 18-2 record, the Waves are holding their top national ranking with little trouble at all. Consistent, solid play has been their game, and as their fans commented at last week’s matches, the men seem absolutely unstoppable.
Pepperdine faced off with Long Beach State Thursday, and after progressively shutting down the offense of the No. 4 ranked 49ers, the Waves took the victory in four games.
The next night, the men killed the visiting Rutgers-Newark team in three games.
Pepperdine seeks to extend its 15-1 conference record with the next two matches against No. 6 University of the Pacific and No. 10 Stanford.
The men will travel north to face these Mountain-Pacific Sports Federation competitors for the second time. The players hope the matches they play on their weekend getaway will have a similar outcome as the last time the teams met — both victories were in three games, but the Waves did have home-court advantage.
“The teams we have left to play have full rosters back from last year,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “That is an advantage for them from an experience standpoint. In every remaining match we’ll have to play well to win, but that’s good for our team right now.”
Junior outside hitter Fred Winters led the Waves in their win in the highly anticipated contest against Long Beach State. Winters took the match-high 22 kills Thursday, adding seven kills to his play. Pepperdine beat Long Beach in four games, by scores of 30-26, 29-31, 30-20, 30-24.
“Long Beach is a good team,” Dunphy said. “They are right in the mix with the best teams out there. Before they met us they were on a significant winning streak. They’re playing well right now.”
Not well enough to take the Waves, however. Players say solid blocking was the biggest contributor to the important conference win.
“We always block well and we did that again against Long Beach,” sophomore setter John Mayer said. “That’s huge for us. We also didn’t make many errors and had a high hitting percentage. We came out ready to go because we knew this game was a big one.”
Dunphy agreed the men were on their blocking game.
“Long Beach had a pretty good jump serve,” Dunphy said. “We passed their serve and blocked well that game.”
Teammate sophomore outside hitter Sean Rooney added 20 kills and nine digs.
“I thought it was a well-played, hard played game by both teams,” Dunphy said. “The good guys won in the end.”
The Waves dominated Rutgers-Newark in three games by scores of 30-18, 30-19, 30-18.
“No win is a easy win,” Mayer said. “They were a team we could beat and we did. I think a really big factor is that they don’t see as strong competition on the East Coast. Every night we’re playing tough teams. Plus, we’re a big team physically. They didn’t have the size compared to us.”
Sophomore outside hitter Sean Rooney led the team with a total 10 kills in the contest Friday.
“We played good volleyball,” Dunphy said. “Here was a team from the East Coast and neither team knew anything about the other. We went out and performed well start to finish.”
Senior middle blocker Brad Keenan added seven kills and three service aces.
The non-conference victory continued rebuilding the Waves’ winning streak, which currently sits at five.
The loss lowered the Rutgers-Newark record to 10-7.
Now the Waves get ready to pack up and head north. With only a few more regular-season games, every match will be crucial in Pepperdine’s quest for a national championship.
“This is the last road trip of the year for us,” Mayer said. “This is the biggest one we’ll have. These are going to be two difficult matches, especially on the road so we need to be ready to go.”
March 27, 2003