March 19, 2011
Final Stats
Complete Release in PDF Format 
MALIBU, Calif. - The #13 Pepperdine men's volleyball team remains undefeated against non-conference opponents this season after its 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-14) win over Rutgers-Newark this evening. Matt Pollock led the Waves with 14 kills and five blocks.
Pepperdine's other non-league wins include two victories over Ohio State, and a 3-0 triumph against Harvard earlier this week.
Rutgers-Newark dished an impressive 17 service aces led by Jeff Zornig's nine. The impressive feat, however, was balanced out by the Waves' .351 (50 kills, 17 errors, 94 attempts) hitting percentage and 11.5 blocks at the net. Pollock (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg HS) led all players with five rejections, in addition to his 14 kills on a .600 clip.
Maurice Torres (Riverside, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) came into the match in the second set and finished the night 13 kills earned on a season high .429 attack percentage. He added four service aces and two block assists to bring his point total to 18.0.
The Scarlet Raiders jumped to an early lead in the first frame, forcing head coach Marv Dunphy to call his second timeout with the Waves down 14-19. The squads traded points until a Pollock kill put Sean Pederson (Evergreen Park, Ill./ Mount Carmel HS) at the service line. His sound serving brought Pepperdine back within one 21-22, but Rutgers-Newark went on a 2-1 run to bring set point.
A Kasey Crider (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS) block and a Pollock ace erased the two set points, but the Scarlet Knights went up again after answering with a block. Tyler Jaynes (Granite Bay, Calif./Granite Bay HS) nailed down a kill, and Crider finished the set with back-to-back aces to give the Waves the 1-0 lead.
Using six service aces, Rutgers-Newark was able to steal a 25-23 second set victory. Pepperdine finished the frame hitting a respectable .320 hitting percentage, compared to the Scarlet Knight's .111.
It was a battle of the hard-hitting servers in game three, with Torres, Austin Pappas and Zornig leading the assault. Tied at three, Torres went to the line to serve eight-consecutive points. In that span, the sophomore tallied four aces to give the Waves the 9-4 lead.
Two sideouts later, Pappas nailed down four-consecutive aces before committing an error to bring the score to 11-9 in favor of the home team. Zornig mirrored his teammates' effort when his turn came to serve, stifling the Waves serve receive on four-consecutive occasions before Torres put a stop to it with a kill.
Despite the Rutgers-Newark's eight aces, the Waves hit a blistering 10 kills on a .643 success rate to maintain the lead. Ironically a service error gave Pepperdine the 25-21 set and a 2-1 lead heading into the fourth stanza.
Pepperdine took control of the match from there, easily rolling to a 25-14 win to conclude the contest.
The Waves return to conference action next week Friday (March 25), when they travel to the Galen Center in Los Angeles to take on top-ranked USC. The Trojans are 15-1 this season, with their sole loss coming courtesy of Pepperdine.
