Pepperdine University


UC Irvine
Pepperdine Stumbles at Home, Loses to UC Irvine
3/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
March 10, 2011
MALIBU, Calif. - Pepperdine's Maurice Torres and Sean Pederson had seven kills apiece but it wasn't enough as UC Irvine, ranked No. 7 in the latest AVCA coaches' poll, defeated the Waves in three games (25-19, 25-17, 25-19) on Thursday night inside Firestone Fieldhouse.
Carson Clark led UC Irvine with a game-high of 12 kills, but it was Cory Yoder who could not be contained, recording 11 kills on 20 errorless swings. The Anteaters were consistent throughout the evening as they had a hitting percentage of .381 while the Waves could only muster up a .138 clip.
Pedersen (Evergreen Park, Ill./Mount Carmel HS) entered the line up late in the second set, and led the Waves (6-10, 4-10 Mountain Sports Pacific Federation) with seven kills on 14 swings for a .357 hitting percentage. Torres (Riverside, Calif./Orange Lutheran) also tallied seven put downs, followed by Tyler Jaynes (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS) with five.
Kasey Crider (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS) not only dished 24 assists, but had a season-high 12 digs to aid Pepperdine's defense.
The Anteaters (12-9, 9-6 MPSF) sprinted out to a 16-9 lead en route to a 25-19 win in the first set. The Waves closed the gap to within four at 23-19 on a kill by Beau Vandeweghe (Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon HS) but a kill by Irvine's Carson Clark followed by a Pepperdine attack error gave UCI the first-set victory. Pepperdine struggled with a hitting percentage of only .148 while UCI had just one miscue on its way to a .522 success rate.
Things didn't fare any better for the Waves in the second set as Irvine broke an 8-8 tie and pulled away in convincing fashion, winning 25-17. A block by Vandeweghe and Matt Pollock (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg HS) brought the Waves into a tie at 8, but behind the skillful play of outside hitter Yoder, the Anteaters opened up a 20-12 lead and never looked back. Yoder had four kills to lead the Anteaters who hit .412, versus Pepperdine's .179.
The home squad broke out to an early 10-7 advantage in the third set only to see the Anteaters, winners of six of their last seven games in MPSF action, rally and take control of the match, outscoring the Waves 18-9 to complete the three-set victory.
Pepperdine returns to the court this Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Malibu against No. 15 UC San Diego as part of their current four-match home stand. The first time these two squads faced off was on Feb. 4 in La Jolla, Calif. The Waves topped the Tritons 3-1.

































