March 24, 2012

Final Stats

#7 Pepperdine 3, George Mason Box Score

MALIBU, Calif. - A well-rounded team effort lifted the Pepperdine men's volleyball to a 3-0 victory against George Mason on Saturday evening inside Firestone Fieldhouse. Six different Waves registered at least one kill, while seven posted at least one block.

With the 25-19, 25-23, 25-21 win, Pepperdine improves to 12-10 overall on the season.

All six starters tallied at least one kill, led by Maurice Torres (Riverside, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) with 11. Josh Taylor (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School) chipped in 8 kills, followed by Matt Pollock (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg HS) and Matt Tarantino (Van Nuys, Calif./Bishop Alemany HS) with five apiece.

At the net, Pollock paced the match with five blocks and Torres added four. Overall, Pepperdine out-blocked the Patriots 9.5-4.0.

Matt West (Seattle, Wash./Shorewood HS) managed the offense with 31 assists, and helped his own cause with a kill in the first set. On defense, the freshman added seven digs and a pair of rejections.

Ryan Plueger (Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) protected the back court with eight digs.

George Mason (7-13) was led by Mark Jones who earned a match-best 12 put aways.

Michael Kvidahl gave the Patriots the early 5-2 lead after a pair of aces forced head coach Marv Dunphy to call an early time out. The break in the action proved to be beneficial for the Waves, as Kvidahl missed his next serve to rotate Torres to the line. The junior opposite fired off a pair of aces of his own to put the advantage back in Pepperdine's favor, 6-5.

Although George Mason would tie the score three more times, they were never able to regain the lead and the Waves went on to take the first set 25-19.

The Patriots controlled the pace in the second stanza, maintaining the lead the majority of the set. With the Waves trailing 17-20, the home team was able to fight back within one, 20-21, but an untimely service error put George Mason back up by two. On the next point, Plueger came up with an astounding pancake save that led to a Chase Ross (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) kill. Torres tallied his third ace of the match to knot the score at 22, and a trio of Patriot errors solidified the comeback win for the Waves, 25-23.

Pepperdine held the lead start to finish in the third and final set. With a 16-for-22 (72-percent) sideout rate, the Waves were able to put the final frame away 25-21. Torres led all hitters with seven kills in the set.

Pepperdine returns to MPSF action next week, when they host Stanford on Friday, March 30 and Pacific on Saturday, March 31.