Pepperdine Advances to Face Long Beach in MPSF Finals
4/28/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
(1) Pepperdine vs. (4) Cal State Northridge Box Score
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(2) Long Beach State vs. (3) UC Santa Barbara Box Score
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Pepperdine rode the solid play of Andy Hein and Jonathan Winder Thursday night to advance to the championship match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) tournament where it will face the Long Beach State 49ers who downed UC Santa Barbara in the second semifinal match at Firestone Fieldhouse Thursday night.
Top seeded Pepperdine (22-2) was embedded in a dogfight with the fourth-seeded Matadors of Cal State Northridge (19-14) all night. The first game of the night set the tone for the rest of the games as Pepperdine struggled to find a rhythm after a 12-day layoff.
"We need to start off better early in the game so we are the team up late, not the team needing to sideout every point," noted MPSF Player of the Year Sean Rooney.
The Waves were down 15-11 in game one after a 10-4 Matador run erased a 7-5 Pepperdine lead. The deficit remained at three to four points until a John Parfitt kill sent Pepperdine on a 7-2 run giving the Waves their first lead since 7-6, at 24-23.
"A couple of big blocks at the end of game one were key for us," noted Rooney. "It took us a little time for us to get out block together, but then we were able to stuff some balls."
During the run, Pepperdine recorded four blocks and held an 18.0-6.5 edge on the stat sheet for the night.
The score remained close with seven more ties, the last coming at 30-30 when Northridge committed back-to-back hitting errors giving the Waves the 32-30 victory.
Game two was going CSUN's way early as the team built a four-point lead off several Pepperdine miscues. One of Rooney's match-leading 23 kills on the night made the score 13-10, CSUN. The sideout moved Rooney to the service line where he took over the match. The Wheaton, Ill., native recorded three of his five aces in the match as he led the team to a 17-13 advantage. Northridge would battle back to regain the lead late, 26-24. But again, it was CSUN's errors which held them back as a Nils Nielsen committed a service error, and consecutive attack errors giving Pepperdine the momentum it needed to close out the match, 30-28.
Nielsen, an All-MPSF third team selection, was limited to -.077 hitting on the night.
The Matadors claimed game three, 30-28, a match which had 12 ties but just one lead change as neither team was able to build any substantial lead. Isaac Kneubuhl's kills with CSUN leading, 21-20, gave the Matadors the two-point margin it needed as the teams traded sideouts the rest of the way.
Pepperdine made sure the glass slipper didn't fit Northridge at its expense by breaking open what was once a three-point Wave's lead with an 11-3 spurt to take a commanding 26-15 lead in the final stanza. Parfitt's 13th kill of the night punched the Wave's ticket into the MPSF championship match.
Hein ended the night with 10 kills and 12 blocks (one solo), completing his first double-double of the season. Winder recorded 46 assists along with 11 digs and eight blocks (one solo) for his third double-double of the season, while libero James Ka logged 15 digs.
Four Matadors reached double-digit kill totals on the night, paced by James Lisher's 16 on 28 swings for a .536 percentage. Brian Waite also had a stellar effort with 13 kills, while hitting at a .478 clip. Cary Hanson joined Kneubuhl with 10.
With the victory, the Waves will extend their season until at least Saturday when it takes on Long Beach State at 6:30 p.m. in Malibu. The match will be televised Live on College Sports Television (CSTV) as the final match of a men's volleyball tripleheader. Volleyball coverage will begin at 1 p.m. (PDT) with The One College Sports Show, which will lead into the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) championship telecast. Fans wanting to attend the match in person can purchase tickets by calling the Pepperdine ticket office at 1-866 WAVE TIX Friday between 9 a.m. (PDT) and 4 p.m. and at the door on Saturday. Tickets cost $12 for adults and $8 for students/children/senior citizens.
