As Willie the Wave offered high fives and the band played “we’re gonna fight fight fight for Pepperdine” in the Firestone Fieldhouse on Wednesday night the men’s volleyball team prepared to battle UCLA.
In a long and excruciating five games the Waves finally put down the Bruins 30-24 25-30 30-21 23-30 and 15-10.
“This was a long match junior blocker Tyler Jaynes said. We really picked it up with our blocking and defense and those were the games we won.”
Pepperdine had the first game in the bag and was always ahead most of the time by four. A block by Jaynes forced UCLA to call a timeout 14-11.
When the Waves were up 20-12 the Bruins had to call a sub to try to slow down Pepperdine’s momentum. The Waves had a sub of their own when senior libero Kyle Luongo went in to serve for senior middle blocker Rodnei Santos at 23-18.
Another timeout was called when freshman opposite Maurice Torres got a kill turning the scoreboard to 28-25. Shortly after the Waves won the first game 30-24.
“UCLA is a finicky team that sometimes plays well and sometimes they don’t at all junior outside hitter Cory Riecks said. In game one we got extremely confident and were not prepared for what the Bruins sent our way.”
In game two Pepperdine lost its momentum. The Bruins taunted Pepperdine fans as they began to catch up to their Wave rivals. The game was tied at 14s 17s and 20s.
After a timeout called by head coach Marv Dunphy the Bruins kept their power with an ace to continue their lead by two points 24-22. UCLA finished game two with a 7-3 run and a win at 30-25.
“Volleyball is a team sport Riecks said, and the moments where we played as individuals were the games we lost but in the end we pulled it together.”
In game three a solo block by junior setter Kasey Crider moved Pepperdine into the lead by seven points 22-15 and soon the Waves were up by a massive 11 points.
The game ended in Pepperdine’s victory 30-21 with a kill from senior outside hitter Brent Schirripa.
In the next game the Waves called a timeout when the Bruins forced their way into the lead 15-16.
Luongo again subbed for Santos but Pepperdine was still down by four points. At game point for the Bruins the scoreboard read 29-22. Torres held down the fort with a huge block giving the Waves one more chance. Sophomore outside hitter Trevor Van Uden missed his serve ending the game in a defeat for Pepperdine 30-23.
The fifth and final game looked dire for the Waves when they lost the first point of the game in a joust. Senior outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach hammered the ball away after senior libero Sean Grubbs had a pancake up.
UCLA faced a setback when one of its players flew over the stat tables and cut his head open at 6-3.
Up by eight 12-4 Pepperdine benefited from a controversial call that ended in their favor with the Bruins arguing ball contact with an antenna. UCLA began to make a comeback but with a tooled hit by Schleppenbach the Waves won 15-10.
“I am fired up for practice tomorrow Dunphy said. We have our last home match and this team still has some meat left on their bones.”
The men’s volleyball team will hold senior night this Saturday April 3 in the Firestone Fieldhouse and will challenge the University of Irvine for the last home match of the season.
