Pepperdine Ends Season With a Five Game Heartbreaker to BYU
4/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
April 29, 2004
Final Stats
PROVO, Utah- Fred Winters and Sean Rooney summed up their three years as teammates at Pepperdine University in a five game heartbreaking loss to top-ranked Brigham Young University Thursday night. The pair combined for 47-of-78 kills for the Waves but it wasn't enough as the Cougars walked away with a 3-2 advantage at Smith Fieldhouse.
"A coach I played for taught me a lesson," said Pepperdine head coach, Marv Dunphy. "He said 'games and matches can be won or lost early as well as late.' And I think we had some chances, some good chances to win the first game and we that slip through our fingers a little bit. We had kind of a medium start in that first set."
Games scores were 27-30, 30-27, 27-30, 30-24, and 12-15.
With the loss, Pepperdine ended the season with a 19-9 overall record while BYU improved to 26-4.
Fred Winters, the lone senior on the team, capped an amazing career at Pepperdine University where he finished with 1,525 total kills, including 456 this season. He registered 23 tonight, and pitched in two aces, five digs, two total blocks for a match-high 26.5 points. His partner, Rooney, paced both squads with 24 kills, a .444 clip, and nine digs.
Pepperdine outhit the Cougars .375 to .344 and outblocked BYU 8.0 to 6.0.
Andy Hein, the Waves lead blocker, totaled 14 kills and three block assists. James Ka had seven kills and 11 digs, while setter John Mayer had 67 set assists and seven digs. John Parfitt added five kills and libero Tanner Sutherland was credited with seven digs.
Pepperdine jumped out to a quick lead in the first game and led by as much as five points (18-15) midway through the battle. However, BYU answered back and went on a late run to tie the contest up 22-22 and took a one-point edge (23-22) on the next possession. The Waves came within two points late (28-26) off a Winters' kill but on the next play the Cougars powered down a hit (29-26). Hein, who finished with five kills in the first match, put down a slammer to pull within two (29-27). However, a faulty serve ended the game and gave BYU the 1-0 advantage. Rooney paced both squads with seven kills in the first game.
The second had the same score as the first except the Waves took home the victory this time. The game seesawed back and forth and tied up at 12 all until Pepperdine took on a 6-1 run. The Cougars tip-toed within one point at 24-23 but the Waves would not let them close as they waltzed to a 30-27 victory and evened the series at 1-1. Rooney continued to impress the rowdy crowd of 1,756 fans as he added seven more kills in the second contest.
Late mental mistakes cost the Waves in the third game. With the score even at 23-23 Pepperdine committed three block errors and one reception slip-up to put the game out of reach and the Cougars never lost the lead. Rooney managed just one kill in the third game while Winters added nine more to his statistics to total 15 for the match. Pepperdine stormed back and had no problem taking the fourth game. The Waves maintained the momentum for the majority of the match and Pepperdine evened the series 2-2. Immediately from the get-go mental errors got to the Waves and the Cougars bounced out to a 6-1 advantage in the best of 15 game five. Pepperdine would come within two points at 14-12 but an attack error allowed BYU to continue in the MPSF Tournament.
Mike Gledhill, a junior on the court but a senior in the classroom, also played his last match for Pepperdine tonight.
"BYU played well enough to win and they've been doing that all year long, so I give them credit," commented Dunphy. "We put a little pressure on them, they were bending but they didn't break, and that is credit to the players and to the staff."
