A dominant offensive showing led the No. 9 Pepperdine Waves to sweep Concordia University in three straight sets March 16, at Firestone Fieldhouse.
The Waves had a dominant all-around performance with graduate outside hitter Cole Ketrzynski, graduate middle blocker Martin de Chavarria, sophomore outside hitter Ryan Barnett, graduate middle blocker Akin Akinwumi and freshman middle blocker Ethan Watson, all having six or more kills.
“It’s awesome,” Barnett said. ” It takes a lot of weight off your shoulders. It is just fun too.”
With 49 total kills, the Waves won their respective sets 25-18, 25-20 and 25-21. Pepperdine’s kills came on a .513 success rate — their second best kill rate this season.
Akinwumi led Pepperdine with 14 kills along with an ace and three digs.
“[My] mindset was playing free and playing for my teammates,” Akinwumi said. “I had a quick talk with my coach, and he talked about how I play my best when I am playing free and bettering the ball for the next guy; that was my mentality.”
On the defensive side, freshman setter Ryan Graves led the way with 10 digs. Graves’ defense was supplemented by a strong performance by Barnett. Barnett was effective on both sides with 11 kills and eight digs.
A dominant Waves performance would only run into two real issues throughout the game.
The first issue came early on as Ketryzynski, de Chavarria, Akinwumi, Graves and Watson combined to have six serving errors. These early serves allowed Concordia to start the first set with a 14-12 lead.
“Serving is a tricky skill,” Head Coach Johnathan Winder said. “You just have to find your way and make some good serves.”
The second issue came when Concordia’s offense seemingly caught fire during the third set. Concordia sophomore outside hitter Gage Doble led the way for the Eagles in the third with four kills and an ace.
While Concordia’s offense had found their rhythm, Pepperdine had four more serving errors, leading to a 16-19 Waves deficit. The deficit led Winder to call for a timeout.
“In that third, they [the Eagles] were doing really well offensively, so we talked about needing to make a couple of plays defensively, ,” class=” collapsed”>
” Winder said. “We needed to dig a ball or make a play, and Joe Deluzio did that on the serve and spurned a couple of extra points for us.”
The Waves have a challenging schedule going forward as they still have to face No. 6 ranked BYU, No. 11 USC and No. 4 Grand Canyon before the regular season concludes.
“I have a lot of confidence in my squad that, no matter who we play, we have so many different pieces that are going to get the job done,” Akinwunmi said. “It takes so much stress off and allows me to play more freely.”
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Email Alex Clarke: Alexander.clarke@pepperdine.edu
