Greg Barnett
Sports Writer
With his team down two games and match point to the BYU Cougars in game three, senior setter Jonathan Winder and the Waves fought back to take the MPSF tournament (28-30, 28-30, 32-30, 30-27, 15-8). With the win, the Waves punched their ticket to the NCAA Championships held next week in Irvine, Calif.
Head Coach Marv Dunphy said his team didn’t outplay BYU, but played right with them the entire match and just didn’t finish in the first two games.
“It’s always great to win and in our sport it’s great to win in five,” he said. “Sometimes you’re good enough to win and sometimes you’re not – in this tournament we were good enough.”
The Waves were led by tournament MVP Winder who tallied 63 assists and 15 digs. Junior opposite Paul Carroll and junior outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach hammered 27 and 23 kills, respectively. Both joined Winder on the All-Tournament team after the match for their play throughout the tournament.
Hundreds of Waves fan made the hour long trip to Long Beach for the match. Winder said it was great to have all the fans there supporting the team, especially the students.
“It was great to see the amount of people especially the students because they tend to get a little more rowdy,” he said.
Pepperdine played well in the first two games and led both of them the entire way. They just couldn’t close out the feisty Cougars. Game three was more of the same, Pepperdine led 28-27 but the Cougars rallied to take the lead, 29-28. A Schleppenbach kill kept Pepperdine hopes alive and the Waves stormed back to win the game, 32-30.
After the win in game three, Pepperdine used the momentum to win games four and five in decisive fashion. The Waves dominated game four, leading 29-23 but BYU gave the Waves a scare. The Cougars wheeled off four straight points, but couldn’t complete the rally, losing the game 30-27.
Schleppenbach served the Waves to a seemingly perfect start in the decisive game five, using his jump serve to lead Pepperdine to a 4-0 lead. “My serve was on in this tournament and let’s hope it carries into next week,” Schleppenbach said.
After the great start, Pepperdine never let the Cougars back in the game, leading 11-4. The Cougars didn’t have an answer for the Waves intensity and dropped the final game and likely their NCAA tournament hopes, 15-8.
Winder said despite the team’s rough start he believed the team could win the match the entire way. That belief turned out to be true and his senior season continues on to Irvine where he and the Waves will attempt to make up for the loss in the national semifinals last year.
“I thought we could win the match from the beginning,” Winder said. “We believed it the whole time and if you believe it, you got a great shot to win it.”
The Waves next match will be Thursday when the NCAA championships open with a doubleheader at the Bren Events Center in Irvine. The first match is at 6 p.m. and the second match will immediately follow the first with a scheduled start at 8 p.m.
Submitted 04-27-2008