By Kyle Jorrey
Sports Editor
Unlike the typical Pepperdine students, the women’s volleyball team didn’t head to Santa Barbara this past Wednesday night for pleasure. They were there on business.
The No. 10 Waves (17-6, 9-0 in conference) defeated the previously unbeaten University of California Santa Barbara Gauchos in four games 30-26, 26-30, 30-28, 30-18.
For the Waves, the victory was their third in six days and their eighth in a row. On Friday and Saturday the team defeated conference foes Portland (30-25, 30-11, 30-14) and Gonzaga (30-19, 30-23, 30-11) to extend their WCC winning streak to 22.
But the win against a top-ranked, non-conference opponent like the Gauchos was the highlight of the weekend, and it almost never happened.
With Pepperdine leading 22-11 in the fourth game of the match, the lights in the Santa Barbara gym suddenly went out — thanks to a blown transformer that shut down electricity all over the city.
After a 30-minute delay, the referees told both teams the match would be postponed and each headed back to their respective locker rooms. At that point, said Waves middle block junior Lyndsey Haché, the team wasn’t in good spirits. A sense of dissatisfaction permeated the atmosphere.
“It was a pretty crappy feeling,” Haché said. “We came out here and we battled as hard as we could and we thought we were walking out of there without a (win).”
But just as the team began to change into its street clothes its prayers were answered. The lights flashed back on and the referees decided to finish up the match.
“We were so excited,” Haché said. “Everyone was screaming.”
After a 30-minute warm-up session the match got underway, and the Waves promptly finished off their competition in a matter of minutes.
Just as she has throughout the winning streak, junior outside hitter Katie Wilkins lead the way for Waves with 25 kills. Senior middle blocker Stacey Rouwenhorst and Haché did their part, finishing with 17 and 11 kills respectively.
Despite its impressive scoring attack against a team that is traditionally strong defensively, the Waves really won the match with inspired defense of their own. It finished the match with 99 digs, limiting the Gauchos to only a .189 hitting percentage.
Senior Paola Rodriguez led the team with 24 digs of her own.
“Defense is always a big p art of our game,” Rouwenhorst said. “We knew they were really good defensively team and we knew we had to stay with them. Everyone was playing as hard as they could and went all out for balls.”
Rouwenhorst said the fact that the Gauchos came in undefeated only added to the team’s desire to win.
“We needed to show people that they could be beaten, and we wanted to be the first team to beat them,” she said.
Haché said coming out and taking the first game was all the team needed to convince themselves that not only could it win the match, but it should.
“The whole time I don’t think any of us ever panicked, we stayed really calm,” Haché said. “It was real nice especially after we took that first game. It was huge for us … it put them on their heels and took the pressure off us.”
“I think they expected a fight, but not as much a fight as we were ready to give them,” she added.
For Wilkins, who said she didn’t play her best in the Santa Barbara match, the big-win was a credit to the Waves unselfish play. She said that over the past few weeks the team has won by taking advantage of mismatches, and getting the ball to the player with the best shot.
“I was just trying to stay consistent and try and help others,” Wilkins said. “I was kind of having a rough night hitting, so I was trying to pass well so other people could take the shot.”
Next week the Waves face conference opponent Loyola Marymount (14-8, 5-4 in WCC) before making the much-anticipate trek cross-town to Westwood to take on the rival UCLA Bruins (13-10). Despite not being in the same conference, the competition level should be high for the Tuesday night match, considering Head Coach Nina Matthies is a former Bruin and the Waves are coming off a dominating victory over UCLA last year in Firestone Fieldhouse..
November 07, 2002