San Diego out lasts Pepperdine, 3-1
10/23/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 23, 2004
Final Stats
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - After taking game one of the night from the #22 San Diego Toreros, Pepperdine's women's volleyball team saw a late four-point lead disappear in game two and never regained its form as it dropped a four-game decision (24-30, 34-32, 30-22, 30-21) Friday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The 2003 WCC Freshman of the Year Sophia Milo was outstanding for the Waves as she recorded a match-high 17 kills and did not commit an error until late in game three. Pepperdine's middle blockers continued to shine as the trio of Milo, Lecca Roberts and Kristin McClune accounted for 12 blocks and 34 kills.
San Diego (13-4, 6-0 WCC) was led by Devon Forster's 17 kills and Emily Haas' 16. Defensively, Jackie Bernardin recorded a match-high 32 digs.
The first game of the night saw the Waves (5-10, 3-3 WCC) race out to a 7-1 lead. But Pepperdine would struggle to sideout as USD used an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the game, 9-7. Out of a Pepperdine timeout, the Waves would rally back to knot the game up at 16-16 and regain the lead on a block by McClune and Milo. With the score tied at 19-all, Roberts would record her 2nd kill of the game and gave the Waves a lead they would never relinquish as they took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 30-24 victory.
The Toreros jumped out to an early 8-4 lead in game two and held a four or five point advantage until the 15-10 mark, when the Waves started chipping away at the lead. Back-to-back kills from Katy Daly cut the lead to one at 18-17. Pepperdine would get three kills from Roberts, and one from Milo, McClune and Shultz as it built a three-point lead 26-23. It looked like the Waves would head into the intermission with a 2-0 lead in the match, but two service errors at game point kept USD in the match. With the score tied at 31-all, Melissa Mehlhorn was called for a net violation, which made the Pepperdine bench visibly upset and resulted in a yellow card being issued to Head Coach Nina Matthies. The controversy would climax at the final point as the Waves were called for a disputed ball-handling error giving the Toreros the 34-32 win and knotted the match up at one game each.
Pepperdine came out of the locker room with the hot hand in game three building a 5-2 lead. But the Waves could not keep up the pace as USD grabbed an 8-7 lead. From that point the Toreros would go on a 7-1 run. USD never gave up the lead as it took a 2-1 lead in the match.
USD used it momentum to finish the match in four games, but again controversy would mar the contest. With the Toreros leading, 10-6, the game was stopped during action due to an artificial noisemaker in the stands. USD objected to the call as Matthies pulled her players off the floor.
Roberts finished the night with 12 kills and two block assists, while Kristen Shultz and Daly notched 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Mehlhorn logged her 10th double-double of the year with 46 assists and 14 digs.
The Waves return to action on Sunday as they take on Santa Clara in a match that will be featured as CSTV's Sunday Night Spikes match of the week. First-serve is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (PDT). CSTV is on DirectTV 161 or Adelphia cable channel 119 in the Thousand Oaks area.
