Jan. 21, 2015 Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
Box Score: #6 Pepperdine 3, Cal State Northridge 0 
MALIBU, Calif. - The #6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team won its 10th straight home match tonight, sweeping Cal State Northridge 25-15, 25-22, 25-15. Business for the Malibu Roofing Company was booming, as the Waves out-blocked the Matadors 16-2.
With the victory, Pepperdine improves to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the MPSF. The Waves' 10-match home win streak dates back to March 8 of last season.
Matt Tarantino (Van Nuys, Calif./Bishop Alemany) was impenetrable at the net, assisting on eight blocks. He added five kills and three aces for 12.0 points. The senior middle blocker entered the match ranked 12th in the nation for his 0.65 aces per set average.
Leading all hitters was Josh Taylor (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School), who killed off his first seven attempts and was hitting 1.000 late into the second set, before ending the night with 11 kills earned at a .476 (11 kills-1 error-21 attempts) clip.
Pepperdine's serve receive made all the difference in the match. The Waves did not allow a single ace, while the passing of Taylor, Brennan Anderson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona Del Mar HS/Ohio State) and Scott Rhein (Pleasant View, Tenn./Aaron Academy) was on target all night.
"The necessity to serve and receive is ongoing and something we are always working on," said head coach Marv Dunphy. "We certainly received well, but we didn't serve very well which was a disappointment. But I thought our pass-set-hit was pretty good, as was our blocking.
"I thought Brennan Anderson ran serve receive really well. CSUN has a few guys who serve pretty tough and we controlled them early."
The Matadors (3-3, 1-1 MPSF) were held to just a .090 (27-20-78) attack percentage, marking the third time in 2015 the Waves have limited an opponent to a clip of less than .100. Damani Lenore and Sam Holt paced CSUN with eight kills each.
The Waves were firing on all cylinders from the very first serve of set one, scoring the first four points before the Matadors could side out. Pepperdine controlled the tempo from start to finish, with 10 kills earned off of 15 errorless swings (.667). For good measure, the Waves added five blocks - three by the tandem efforts of Tarantino and Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif./Tesoro HS) - to secure the set 25-15.
Although set two played out much closer, the momentum was still on the Waves' side. Pepperdine went on a 4-0 run to take the lead at 20-17, before Cal State Northridge pieced together 2-0 run of its own. Lenore put down back-to-back kills to make it a 23-22 game, but Taylor killed off a ball out of the timeout to bring up set point. CSUN tried to stay alive and dug or blocked back four Pepperdine attacks, but the Malibu Roofing Company came through in the end and rejected Lenore for the set-clinching point.
The Waves continued to frustrate the Matador hitters in the third, scoring six more points off of the block. Tarantino first teamed up with Matt West (Seattle, Wash./Shorewood HS) and Rhein to put the stop on, before blocking back-to-back attacks alongside Taylor to make it 6-3. Tarantino then served his team to a 5-0 run and Pepperdine rode the wave to victory, 25-15.
Mitchell Penning (Peoria, Ill./Westminster Christian Academy) teamed up with James Gehrels (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic HS) to earn his seventh block of the night at match point.
West set the Waves to a .324 (32-9-71) hitting percentage with 25 assists.
Kalmbach led the defense with seven digs, followed by Taylor with five.
Pepperdine continues the home stand on Saturday, with a 7 p.m. match against #10 Long Beach State. The match will be broadcast online for free via WaveCasts.
