GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
Pepperdine men’s volleyball’s first loss at home since 2004 was quickly followed by their second straight home loss at the hands of Long Beach State University on March 9.
The Waves managed to regain their winning form against UC San Diego on Saturday at the Fieldhouse, pulling out a split over the weekend.
The Long Beach State game was a mismatch from the very beginning. The 49ers swept Pepperdine aside 30-18, 30-23, 30-28. Long Beach’s Duncan Budinger led all players with 19 kills as the 49ers out hit Pepperdine .402-.220.
Pepperdine had two players with double figure kill totals. Junior John Parfitt had 14 and freshman Paul Carroll had 11.
Pepperdine Head Coach Marv Dunphy said the loss came down to nothing more than Long Beach outplaying Pepperdine on both sides of the net.
“Long Beach played better, and we didn’t play as well,” Dunphy said. “It was a little bit of both. They served well and played good defense; they sided out pretty well too. They’re a good team, I give them all the credit.”
In the second match of the weekend, Pepperdine returned to the win column, trouncing UCSD is three games. The loss dropped the Tritons to 1-20 on the season and 0-16 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches.
Pepperdine’s defense managed to shut down the UCSD attack, allowing just a .094 hitting percentage while the Waves hit at a .333 clip.
Carroll and Parfitt were once again the only Waves with double figure kill totals, notching 10 and 12 respectively. The Waves had 13 blocks on the night while the Tritons only stopped 5.5 Pepperdine attacks.
Dunphy credited the win to UCSD being outmanned.
“The opponent wasn’t nearly as strong,” Dunphy said. “There wasn’t anything magical that we did to win that match.”
Pepperdine, now at 12-4 on the season, will host UCLA at 7 p.m. today in a rematch of an earlier Waves’ victory at Pauley Pavilion. It’s the second time the teams have faced each other since Pepperdine defeated the Bruins in the national title match in 2005.
Though Pepperdine managed to beat UCLA in Westwood earlier this season, Dunphy said the rematch wouldn’t be an easy one for the Waves.
“That was a real, real close match,” Dunphy said. “They’re a good team, much better than record indicates. They’ve had some injuries but right now they’re playing well. We’ve got to play well too if we want to win.”
On Saturday, Pepperdine heads to UC Irvine to complete a home-and-home series against the Anteaters. UC Irvine is ranked No.-1 in the nation with a 19-3 record. Dunphy said the Waves won’t be looking ahead to that game because the UCLA match means so much.
“I think our team is going one match at a time,” Dunphy said. “We play UCLA on Thursday, then the team with best record and No.-1 in the nation.”
The Waves play UC Irvine at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
03-16-2006
