GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
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Friday night at Firestone Fieldhouse (Graham Shea/Photo Editor)
Pepperdine’s women’s volleyball team opened the West Coast Conference season on a high note after snapping No.-12 University of San Diego’s 14-match WCC winning streak Friday night at Firestone Fieldhouse. However, the Waves were unable to start the conference season 2-0 as they fell to No.-15 University of Santa Clara Sunday afternoon.
The Waves stifled the Toreros’ offense Friday night, doling out 24 blocks and beating USD 30-16, 20-30, 30-28, 26-30, 15-10. Pepperdine narrowly out-hit San Diego, .168 to .145.
Head Coach Nina Matthies said she was pleased with the team’s effort against the Toreros.
“I thought we played really well all the way around Friday night,” Matthies said. “We had some ridiculous amount of blocks. It was actually quite incredible. I thought we played a tremendous game all the way around.”
Sophomore middle blocker Lecca Roberts led the way for the Waves with 19 kills in the game. She was one of four Waves to record double-digit kills in the game. Junior Sophia Milo and freshman outside hitter Julie Rubenstein each had a dozen kills and senior Katy Daly notched 10 kills.
San Diego’s Kristen Carlson led all players with 23 kills in the game.
Pepperdine returned to the court Sunday afternoon to face its second top-15 team of the weekend, but were unable to keep up with Santa Clara, falling in four games.
The Gaels snapped Pepperdine’s five-match winning streak in a four-set match that showcased each team’s offensive prowess. Santa Clara finished off the Waves 30-26, 25-30, 30-28, 30-23.
Matthies said the back-and-forth nature of the game simply got away from the Waves.
“If you look at the whole match, it was a sideout game,” Matthies said. “The whole time was back and forth. People probably thought it was us serving out a lot, but I thought it was us not serving tough enough to create offensive problems for Santa Clara. That’s been our biggest challenge all year.”
Each team had four players with double-digit kill totals. Santa Clara’s Brittany Lowe led the way with 24 kills and Cassie Perret tallied 21 kills.
Daly was Pepperdine’s top hitter, putting 19 kills on the board for the Waves. Rubenstein followed her with 18 kills, and Roberts and Milo contributed 14 and 13 respectively. Pepperdine only notched 10 blocks as a team, and Santa Clara had just seven in the match.
Serving has been a problem spot for the Waves, Matthies said, but the team just has to keep working to solve the problem.
“We work on it daily, obviously,” Matthies said. “It’s something that has to come from each person. I’ve told the girls that each member of the team has to find a weapon. You have the ability to control the game at that point in time and can really help us score points. We’ve got a couple of young kids in some new positions working hard. I’m fairly pleased with both our offense and our defense. We’re going to hone in on doing some other things serving though.”
The Waves go on the road this weekend to face University of San Francisco and Saint Mary’s College as the WCC season continues. Pepperdine has won five of its last six matches and hopes to continue building on its 1-1 start in the conference, according to Matthies.
“I’m planning on coming back with two wins,” Matthies said. “We need to continue on with the conference and keep getting better. San Francisco and Saint Mary’s are playing well. They’re both top-30 teams, both of them will be pretty tough. We’ve been working hard all week trying to clean up a few things to get ready.”
10-06-2005
