Pepperdine University
USC
Men's Volleyball Knocks Off #1 USC
1/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Pepperdine-USC Box Score 
MALIBU, Calif. - With its best performance yet of this young season, the #11 Pepperdine men's volleyball team knocked off top-ranked USC in five games (33-31, 26-30, 27-30, 31-29, 15-10) on Friday night in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play at Firestone Fieldhouse.
Health issues played a big part as Pepperdine (2-4 overall, 2-3 MPSF) got off to a slow start this season, but everything was clicking tonight as the Waves handed the Trojans (6-2, 4-1) their first conference loss.
Pepperdine last beat a #1-ranked team in 2007 and did it three times that year (BYU twice and UC Irvine once).
"We had a pretty balanced attack and that was the biggest thing that stood out to me," Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. "We started siding out, and it seemed like we got better and better as the match went on. We were able to receive serve very well."
Freshman opposite Maurice Torres (Riverside, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) pounded down a season-high 28 kills and added a match-high six blocks. Junior outside hitter Cory Riecks (Auburn, Calif./Placer HS), making his second start of the season, had 21 kills. Both hit .400 or better.
Both Pepperdine middle blockers hit over .500, as senior Rodnei Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil/BYU) hit .571 with 14 kills and five blocks, and junior Tyler Jaynes (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS) hit .522 with 12 kills and five blocks.
Junior setter Kasey Crider (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS) had a career-high 76 assists and helped Pepperdine to a .391 team hitting percentage.
USC hit .369 as a team. The Waves had a 12-6 edge in blocks and 6-4 in service aces.
"It's hard to play injured but we're getting stronger," said senior J.D. Schleppenbach, who had nine kills and seven digs. "We competed tonight, straight and simple. We came together after every play, we really wanted it and we knew we could do it."
The Trojans had five players reach double-figures in kills, led by Murphy Troy's 21. Tony Ciarelli and Tri Bourne each had 18, while Bourne added 10 digs for a double-double.
Pepperdine outblocked (5-0), outhit (.341-.263) and outserved (3-0 in aces) USC to claim the first game, though it took a while. The Waves led by as many as four at 24-20 but the Trojans rallied to tie it at 27. A kill by Torres and a block by Santos gave Pepperdine a couple of game points, but USC scored twice to even things up again at 29. Pepperdine maintained advantage, however, and on the team's fifth game point, a Trojan attack went out-of-bounds.
The Trojans just about doubled their hitting in the second game to .517, while Pepperdine's stayed about the same at .333. USC jumped out to a 14-9 lead after a block by Austin Zahn and Bourne. The Waves fought back, however, pulling within two points at 18-16 after kills by Torres and Schleppenbach, and at one point at 25-24 after a kill by Schleppenbach and a service ace by Santos. It was still a one-point game at 27-26 but the Trojans scored the game's final three points, the first two on kills by Troy before another block by Zahn and Bourne ended it.
The first two-thirds of the third game were extremely tight. Neither team would even take a two-point lead until the Waves went up 18-16 after consecutive kills by Torres and Santos. But the Trojans would come back and take a two-point lead of their own at 22-20 after two straight Wave attack errors. USC's lead grew to as many as four points, first at 27-23 after a kill by Ciarelli and another Pepperdine attack error. The Trojans eventually closed out the game on a kill by Hunter Current. Both teams hit better than .500 in the third game (USC had a .548-.515 edge).
USC had a four-point lead midway through the fourth game at 18-14 and appeared poised to end the match there, but the Waves battled back and eventually tied the game at 19-19 after a block by Torres and Santos. There were eight lead changes in the fourth game, almost as many as the first three had combined. Pepperdine took a two-point lead at 26-24, but USC came back and went ahead 28-27. After a USC service error, the Waves got the advantage back and a game point after a service ace by Jaynes. Troy tied it up at 29 with a kill, but a kill by Riecks and a USC attack error sent the match to a fifth set.
The Waves opened the fifth set with kills by Riecks and Torres, and a serve by Torres trickled over the top of the net and landed on USC's side for a service ace and a 4-1 lead. The margin grew to four at 6-2 after a USC hitting error. The Trojans, however, rallied to tie the game at 8-8 after consecutive kills by Troy. But Pepperdine came right back, scoring the next three points to regain the lead at 11-8 on two kills by Riecks and a kill by Torres. After a kill by USC's Zahn, the Waves got three more points in a row to pull ahead 14-9. Torres later ended the match with a kill.
Pepperdine heads out on the road for its next three MPSF matches: UC Santa Barbara (Wednesday, Feb. 3), Cal State Northridge (Friday, Feb. 5) and USC (Friday, Feb. 12).
