GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team lost its second straight match when the Waves were up-ended by the University of Southern California Trojans on Friday night at the Lyon Center. The Waves will try to break the losing skid when they host Cal Baptist University tonight at 7.
Against USC, the Waves couldn’t keep the ball in bounds, committing 27 hitting errors while hitting 13 serves out of play. Pepperdine hit just .171 in the match, losing in three games, 30-28, 30-22, 30-28. Pepperdine Head Coach Marv Dunphy said the USC defense kept the Waves attack at bay for much of the game, leading to many of the errors.
“I think a lot of [the errors], at least half of those were blocks,” Dunphy said. “Both sides were blocking some balls. We made errors; some were forced, some were unforced. I like to give the opponent credit. When we did hit it in, they dug it. They just played well.”
Junior John Parfitt led the Waves with 16 kills and senior Jon Grobe was the only other Pepperdine player with double figures in kills, notching 12. Sophomore Jon Winder could never get the momentum going, hitting -.167 with one kill on six swings and two hitting errors.
The Trojans’ Juan Figueroa led all players in the match with 17 kills and teammate C.J. Schellenberg had 15 kills. The Waves managed to out-block the Trojans 15-13 but couldn’t overcome the mistakes on the offensive end.
Dunphy said the Trojans simply outplayed the Waves from the opening serve and much of it had to do with USC’s receiving ability.
“They’d played really well and I don’t think we matched their intensity,” Dunphy said. “They passed nails, they dug a lot of balls and they scored when they dug balls. It’s the best SC team in the last several years, but we get another shot at the end of the year with them. That was a disappointing loss.”
Pepperdine’s next match, against NAIA Cal Baptist, is the only non-conference match the Waves will play. Cal Baptist, the defending NAIA national champions, took the Waves to five games in the 2005 season and Dunphy expects CBU to be just as tough this season.
“They will be the most athletic team we play all year,” Dunphy said. “It’s a real international team. Those guys are fun to watch. They’ll win the NAIA championship this year.”
Cal Baptist features a pair of outside hitters from Ghana as well as a 6-11 German middle blocker, a 6-8 Swiss middle blocker and a 6-4 Chinese outside hitter. The NAIA’s rules, which are less stringent about playing eligibility than the NCAA’s, are set to change after this season and CBU will likely lose much of the talent from this team.
“This is the last year they are able to play under current rules they have,” Dunphy said. “It’s wide open. They can bring in guys who are older and have played for years. Their rules change next year, but they’re still a fun team to play as long as we don’t watch them too much.”
The match begins tonight at 7 in Firestone Fieldhouse.
03-30-2006
