No. 1 Pepperdine Keeps Rolling With Sweep Over Irvine
1/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 28, 2004
Final Stats
Irvine, Calif. - The No. 1-ranked Pepperdine Waves defeated No. 10 UC Irvine, 3-0 (30-28, 30-24, 30-28) at the Bren Events Center Wednesday.
The top-ranked Waves remain undefeated, going 6-0 overall and 2-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) play. UCI goes to 4-5 on the season and 1-3 in league action.
The Anteaters jumped out to an early 3-1 start in game one, but Pepperdine rebounded to tie the score at 5-5. The teams traded points with UCI taking a 17-15 lead on a Anteater service ace. UCI maintained the lead extending it to 23-20 on a Pelzel kill. Pepperdine took advantage of a UCI service error and a block to tighten the score 23-22. A Pepperdine kill by Fred Winters and a UCI attacking error knotted the score at 24-24. The teams stayed within one point of each other with a service ace by UCI's Matt Webber tying the score at 28-28. Another Winters kill was followed by what appeared to be a Sean Rooney attack that sailed long, but UCI was whistled for a blocking error to end the game 30-28.
In game two with the score tied 17-17, Pepperdine went on a 3-0 run capped by a Rooney kill to go ahead 20-17. The Anteaters could get no closer than two the rest of the game as Pepperdine went on to take the second set 30-24.
Game three started like game one with a 3-1 UCI lead, but Pepperdine would battle back to tie the game at 8-8. Pepperdine would take a 17-14 lead, but would have consecutive hitting errors to bring UCI within one 17-16. An attacking error by UCI, two service errors by Pepperdine and a kill by the Waves' Tanner Sutherland kept UCI down one 19-18. UCI's Paul Spittle came off the bench and fired a service ace to deadlock the score at 19-19. Pepperdine went on a 7-3 run to lead 26-22. The Waves extended the lead to 28-23 when UCI made a late surge which included kills by freshmen Jayson Jablonsky and Matt Weber to pull within 28-26. A Pepperdine attacking error was followed by a UCI serving error. Webber recorded a kill to make it 29-28, but UCI's Kyle Weichert served the ball long to end the game 30-28 and the match 3-0.
Pepperdine was paced by Winters with 14 kills, five digs and two solo blocks. Rooney added 11 kills, while Tanner Sutherland had 10 kills and hit .529 (10-1-17) for the match. John Mayer had a match-high 41 set assists.
UCI was led by freshman Matt Webber with 14 kills, nine digs, two service aces and three block assists. Jimmy Pelzel tallied 11 kills and 13 total points. Libero Greg Ford led all players with 11 digs. UCI split the setting duties with Brian Thornton adding 29 set assists in two games.
Pepperdine out-hit UCI .390-.230 and won the battle at the net with 9.5 to 7.5.
The Waves travel to No. 3 UCLA on Saturday for an 8 p.m. match.
