Pepperdine Women’s Indoor Volleyball concluded the second game of a two game series against the USC Trojans on Aug. 31, at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves dropped both games to the Trojans to open the season, doing so for first time since the 2019 season.
Coming off the sweep, the Waves were looking to open the game on the right foot. Building off the energy of the first match Aug. 30, both teams were neck and neck in the first set, with the lead switching nine times over the course of the set.
The turning point came while the Waves were down 9-11. Pepperdine rallied for four straight kills, taking the lead and bringing the score to 13-11.
USC went on a small rally of their own, securing three straight kills to regain the lead at 13-14, but the Waves retaliated with five straight kills — taking the lead and not surrendering it for the rest of the first set.
However, this would be all the success the Waves would see for game two.
Pepperdine would drop the next three sets in steady fashion, only coming within three kills of USC in that span. Set two ended 25-21 while the remaining sets ended 25-17, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
In set two, the Trojans would string together eight separate rallies securing two or more kills. They would produce four of those rallies in set three and six more in set four.
During those spans, USC would go on long stretches rallying kill after kill, securing a 7-0 run on two separate occasions — once in set three and again in set four.
A bright spot for the Waves in this match was the consistency between the Waves Big 3 — senior outside hitter Grace Chillingworth, graduate opposite hitter Riley Simpson and graduate outside hitter Birdie Hendrickson.
Just like the first match Aug. 30, these three were led the Waves in kills with 14, 11 and seven respectively. On the defense side of the serve freshman middle blocker Ella Piskorz, Simpson and junior middle blocker Kenadie Patterson led the team in blocks with six, four and three respectively.
For the second game of the season, the Waves sent out Chillingworth, Simpson, Hendrickson, Piskorz, Patterson and junior setter Rosemary Archer. Piskorz being the only change to the starting lineup.
Piskorz would lead the match in block with six, as Chillingworth ranked second in kills with 14, attacks with 40 and points with 14.5 — only being bested by one USC player. Archer ranked second in assists with 24 and Hendrickson tied for first in digs with 16, all according to Pepperdine Athletics.
Chillingworth secured her first double-double of the year as she added 11 digs to her stat line. The two-setter duo of Archer and sophomore Brynne McGhee is shaping up to lead the Waves in a strong direction offensively, as they accumulated 38 assists, 24 and 14 respectively.
Both teams ended the match on equal footing when it came to attack errors with 24, however, USC took advantage of the game with hitting percentage at .215. The Waves saw a clip below .200, at .159.
Despite the slow start to the season, Pepperdine are the reigning WCC Champs, and as Volleyball is on the road to repeating, they also look toward the road for their next match of the season.
The Waves traveled to Hawaii on Sept. 6, splitting a two-game series, and travel to Boston next as they look to bounce back from the tough 1-3 start against Harvard on their quest to becoming back-to-back champs.
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Contact Justin Rodriguez via email: justin.rodriguez@pepperdine.edu
