GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
The No.-2 ranked Pepperdine men’s volleyball team’s 18-match home winning streak came to an abrupt end Friday night at the hands of the University of Hawaii Warriors. The Waves’ split the two-match series against Hawaii, but in the second match, Pepperdine was outmanned, leading to the team’s first home defeat since 2004.
In Thursday’s tilt, Pepperdine overcame a solid Hawaii attack to win 3-2 (30-24, 27-30, 26-30, 30-19, 15-8). The Waves came out strong in the first game, hitting .536 while the sixth-ranked Warriors hit.258. However, the Warriors offense was able to strike back in games two and three, hitting over .400 in both games.
In the fourth game, the Waves countered back in dominating fashion, completely shutting down Hawaii’s offense while hitting .552. The momentum from the fourth game carried over and the Waves ran away with the fifth and final game, hitting .667 while holding Hawaii’s attack to a .000 hitting percentage. Pepperdine Head Coach Marv Dunphy said junior Tanner Sutherland was one of the main reasons the Waves were able to make such a quick turnaround.
“Sutherland came in and played really well,” Dunphy said. “He provided a spark with his hitting and serving, and I thought that he just gave us a little spark that we needed to get going.”
Sutherland had nine kills that night on .615 hitting and had a big service ace to help Pepperdine complete its comeback.
Junior John Parfitt led all hitters with 21 kills in the match as three Waves were in double digits in kills. Freshman Paul Carroll had 15 kills and senior Andy Hein contributed 11 kills. Despite winning, the Waves were marginally outblocked 12.5-12.
In Friday’s match, the tables were turned as Hawaii’s defense forced the Waves into mistakes and the Warrior offense took control of the match early and kept the pressure on throughout the three-game sweep.
Hawaii had three players with double-digit kill totals while Pepperdine had none. The Warriors won convincingly, 30-26, 30-20, 30-21. Pepperdine hit just .181 as a team while Hawaii hit .355 to end the Waves’ home winning streak that dated to April 26, 2004, when the Warriors last defeated them.
Dunphy said the sweep had to do with the Warriors outplaying Pepperdine in every aspect, and the Waves having no answer for the Hawaii attack.
“I think it was them playing real well in all phases of the game,” Dunphy said. “I told the team afterward that sometimes in sport, the other team is just better. They were certainly better than us and I think there were lots of things that contributed to them playing well and us not playing so well.”
Hein led the Waves with eight kills while sophomore setter Jonathan Winder, who had yet to taste defeat in Firestone Fieldhouse, contributed 28 assists and six blocks, including two solo blocks.
Dunphy said the sweep won’t affect the Waves going into the weekend.
“I think every time we go in the gym we know what we’re doing and what we’re not doing, what we need to work on, and what we’re good at,” Dunphy said. “I don’t think a win in one match or not having played well in one match will have an impact in the next match.”
The Waves couldn’t bounce back from their worst loss this season, however, losing in five games to UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday night. It was the first time Pepperdine had lost two matches in a row since 2004. The Waves have lost three matches this season, more than they lost in all of 2005 The loss drops the Waves to 7-3 on the season.
“We know there are lots of good teams in NCAA volleyball this year and nobody’s undefeated. UCSB split with Hawaii and so we know they’re good. CSUN hammered UCLA, they have their best team ever. The league is good.”
The Waves’ next match will be Saturday at 7 p.m. at Firestone Fieldhouse when the Waves hope to start a new home winning streak against Cal State Northridge. Dunphy said combating the Northridge servers will be the key to the match.
“They have really good servers,” Dunphy said. “They’re the best serving team in the league. Just about everyone on their team has a jump serve. We’ve got to pass their jumpers and we’ll work on that as best we can.”
02-16-2006
