FIRESTONE FIELDHOUSE, JAN. 11— The men’s volleyball team spiked off its opening match of the MPSF tournament against Cal State Northridge with a 3-1 win Wednesday night at Firestone Fieldhouse.
“Tonight we played well as a team,” freshman outside hitter Josh Taylor said. “[Freshman setter] Matt West put up some good sets and made it easy for me to get my kills.”
Taylor led the Waves to victory with 22 kills and eight digs. Following close behind Taylor, junior opposite hitter Maurice Torres added 16 kills and four serve aces.
“If we keep playing like this, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with,” Taylor said.
Next up, the Waves face a series of home games, starting with a match against Long Beach State on Saturday January 14th at 7 p.m.
The men’s volleyball squad dominated the first set of the Northridge match, 25-18 even though a flurry of service errors also dominated the set, with the first two points earned by each team being errors.
Taylor, coming off of a 26-kill game, scored a kill to begin the scoring for the Waves.
The set ended with a service error by the Matadors.
In the second set, CSUN proved that they would not back down, taking their first lead at 4-3. From then on, the teams battled back and forth until a kill by Torres put the Waves up, 22-18.
Taylor finished off the set with another kill, solidifying the score at 25-19.
The Matadors managed to take their largest lead of the entire match, 4-1, to kick off the third set. They went on to a 7-0 run to steal an even larger 11-4 lead.
In this set, despite Pepperdine’s attempted comeback, Northridge held onto its lead and never let go, winning 25-16 and forcing a fourth set.
Even though the Waves had a crowd of 509 on their side, the Matadors played off the momentum from the third set, once again taking an early lead and maintaining it until the Waves finally closed the gap to within one, 15-16.
Thanks to a Northridge point error, Pepperdine snuck back into the set, 16-16, marking a huge momentum shift as the Waves went on to take their first lead, 19-18, since their beginning 6-5 lead.
Collectively, kills by Taylor and Torres, a service error by the Matadors and a block by West closed out the hard-fought final set, 26-24, giving the Waves their first win of the season.
“We served really well,” head coach Marv Williams said. “But the fourth set was a battle. We’re a young team and we’re all about continuous improvement.
We play all the best teams in the country, and we have a great home schedule. We’re excited to play volleyball for Pepperdine this season.”
Both Williams and Taylor also mentioned the electric crowd in attendance, and how much it helped to pump up the team.
“We love the crowd,” Taylor said. “It’s fun to play with all the energy. We really appreciate [the fans].”
