SPENCER OSWALD/Assistant Photo Editor
GREG BARNETT
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team won its second consecutive tournament this weekend by defeating the University of Arizona in the championship match. The Waves got off to a rough start with a devastating loss to Nevada in an epic five- set match. However, the Waves rebounded to win their final two games of the tournament to win the championship.
The first match of the tournament for Pepperdine looked as if it was going to be a route for the Waves, but the University of Nevada would not give up. The Waves were up two games to zero and had a 29-27 lead in the third set, but Nevada wheeled off four straight points to steal the game 31-29.
The fourth game was the same story with Pepperdine leading 29-25 but Nevada played its best when facing match points. The Wolfpack took the next six points and won the game 31-29.
The fifth and deciding game saw the Waves get a match point when leading 15-14, but a net violation took the point away. The Wolfpack then won the next two points to take the game 17-15 and win the match.
The Waves were led by junior Julie Rubenstein and senior Lecca Roberts who had 24 kills and 21 kills, respectively. Sophomore setter Kiah Fiers had 70 assists and Nina Baltimore had 17 digs.
“We just stopped executing,” said Head Coach Nina Matthies. “I think we thought, ‘Hey, we are young, and we are home, so we are going to win.’ It’s college, it doesn’t work that way.”
Luckily, the Waves had two more matches to rebound to avenge the loss to Nevada. Pepperdine’s first match Saturday was against Lipscomb University and the Waves came out on top with a convincing sweep. The match started out close, with Pepperdine pulling out a 30-28 win in game one. The next two games were a different story with the Waves taking the final two games 30-13 and 30-16.
“Last night we didn’t finish,” said freshman Kristen Seaton about Friday night’s loss to Nevada. “We didn’t put the game away.”
Against Lipscomb, the Waves finished, hitting .387 for the match while holding Lipscomb to a .067 hitting percentage. Junior Cassi Chamberlain had eight kills and five blocks, and Roberts pitched in with 11 kills and seven blocks.
“Our serving and passing won us the game today,” Seaton said.
Arizona was the next opponent for the Waves on Saturday night. Arizona and Pepperdine both held a 1-1 record and the match would decide the champion of the Asics Classic. Pepperdine flew out to an 11-3 lead early in the first game and completely out played Arizona to take the first game 30-18.
The second game was much closer with no team having more than a three point lead throughout. Pepperdine squeaked out a 30-27 win in game two to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Waves were hoping not to relive what happened Friday night with a two-game lead against Nevada. Thankfully for the home fans, that didn’t happen. Pepperdine won another close game 30-25 on a service error by Arizona on match point.
“That was the team I know and love; we executed and played very well,” Coach Matthies said. “[The] crowd was awesome, it was so great to have them all here. I could not have been happier, it was the best of my 25 years here.”
Pepperdine’s senior middle blocker Lecca Roberts was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Roberts was solid in the middle throughout the tournament and also had 21 kills against Nevada, 11 against Lipscomb, and seven against Arizona.
The Waves are now 2-0 in tournaments this season after winning the University of Arkansas’ tournament and the Asics Classic. Both tournament victories came in tiebreakers after three teams in each tournament finished with a 2-1 record. Pepperdine now heads to the University of Texas’ Time Warner Cable Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas.
09-06-2007
