GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The No.-5 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team fell to No.-8 UC Irvine on Wednesday night despite capturing the first game. The Anteaters defeated the Waves for the second time in two weeks (25-30, 30-23, 30-25, 30-28). With the loss, Pepperdine fell to 5-4 in MPSF conference play while Irvine improved to 4-4 in the conference.
“We gave it our best shot tonight,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said. “And to Irvine’s credit they knocked us off the net with their serving and we couldn’t side-out on a consistent basis.”
The Waves hit .531 in their game-one victory but couldn’t sustain the percentage for the rest of the match. Irvine held Pepperdine to .081, -.097, and .000 in the final three games. The Anteaters hit .214 for the match while holding the Waves to a .121 average.
Senior setter Jonathan Winder tallied 45 assists and 16 digs for his third double-double of the season. Freshman outside hitter Cory Rieks had a team-high 15 kills while junior outside hitters Matt McKee and J.D. Schleppenbach contributed 11 and 10, respectively.
“I have to give them some credit,” Schleppenbach said after the match. “Some balls we hit pretty well and they got some good touches and picked up the digs.”
Junior middle blocker Mark Hulse had a team-high 8 blocks and sophomore libero Sean Grubbs added 8 digs.
Irvine was led by junior setter Ryan Ammerman, who set career-highs in three categories: assists (40), digs (11), and block assists (5).
Junior Jon Steller recorded a season-high 21 kills while freshmen Cory Yoder and Kevin Carroll each tallied 15 kills. Senior middle blocker Aaron Harrell contributed with a career-high 10 block assists to go along with 6 kills.
Last week, the Waves continued their winning ways against UC San Diego (3-6, 1-6), winning their 33rd straight against the Tritons and improving to 33-0 against them. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Waves.
Dunphy said the team served better against the Tritons, as junior Mark Hulse was allowed to utilize a jump serve rather than a more consistent and slower float serve because the team needs to get opponents off the net a little more.
“Winning is only one measure, I just felt better that we were able to meet some of the standards we have,” Dunphy said. “For me it’s always about the next play, the next match and getting better. I don’t mean to give out a bunch of old coaching cliches but that’s really what we’re trying to do.”
Winder led the Waves with 37 assists and 7 digs while guiding the men to a .360 hitting percentage. Schleppenbach tallied a team-high 12 kills and McKee chipped in with 10 kills and 7 digs while Rieks contributed with 10 kills.
“[The win] brought a little bit more energy back and more confidence,” Schleppenbach said. “We definitely executed a little better and we were sick of losing. We’re not really accustomed to that.”
Grubbs also said the team is starting to play better and gaining some confidence back.
“We had a good scouting report on them and we played well,” he said. “We were executing everything that needed to be done.”
Pepperdine wraps up its four-game road trip Saturday night with a visit to UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion at 7 p.m.
02-07-2008
