The Firestone Fieldhouse crowd was low Wednesday night as the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team beat Pacific in three straight games.
“We can play anyone in this league freshman opposite Maurice Torres said. Pacific is a good team despite their record but we pushed ahead.”
The first game was an easy win for the Waves with the Tigers making all their own mistakes. Pepperdine was ahead for most of the game but the Tigers caught up 28-26. Junior outside hitter Cory Riecks hammered the ball down to get another point 29-27.
At game point senior setter Kyle Luongo went in to serve for junior middle blocker Tyler Jaynes. With a hit into the net from Pacific Pepperdine won the first game 30-27.
“It was good for us to come off a couple of days of not playing and win Jaynes said. We needed this win going into the game versus Stanford this Friday.”
With a match high of 17 kills Riecks got the first one of the game and soon the Waves were easily up five points 9-4. On both sides of the court each team was making service errors that were slowing down the match.
Senior middle blocker Rodnei Santos got a legitimate kill to again bring the Waves up by five with the scoreboard reading 19-14.
Pacific called a time-out when they were down 20-15 and again at 22-25.
Senior outside hitter Brent Schirripa substituted in for Riecks at 23-18 and Torres soon after got another kill. Up by six points senior outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach slammed one down on the Tigers’ side.
Luongo subbed in to serve for Jaynes at 28-22. Once again it was game point with Torres serving at 29-23. Again Pacific could not make a return and the second game went to the Waves.
The first point of the third game was a roof block from Santos and Riecks. Pepperdine then got another big block but the referees gave the point to Pacific. After an objection from the Waves they earned the point.
Schleppenbach hustled under the net and got the ball back on the Waves’ side to put over to Pacific before they got a block 7-3.
Again Pepperdine was up by five in the third game. But an influx of mistakes allowed Pacific to catch up and the game was tied at 14 points.
“We played well as a team which is great said Torres. We did make a lot of errors but recooperated together as a team.”
Senior libero Sean Grubbs had a great dig to bring the Waves back up into the lead along with another kill from Riecks.
Pacific called a timeout with the scoreboard reading 21-18 and shortly after Santos made a huge block.
For the sixth time in the match the Waves were up by five points 25-20. Sophomore outside hitter Trevor Van Uden went in to serve for Jaynes at 28-23. Van Uden served again for game point but Pacific made a kill.
Sophomore middle blocker Matt Pollock went in the front row for Santos and got the kill for match point 30-25.
“Our errors need fine-tuning Torres said. We need to not let ourselves off the hook for this upcoming match.”
Friday the Waves will play No. 2-ranked Stanford on Friday Feb. 19 in the Firestone Fieldhouse.
