Final Stats

MALIBU, Calif. -- The Pepperdine women's volleyball team took West Coast Conference opponents Gonzaga to a five-set fan thriller this Thursday night in front of 544 fans at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves overcame the Bulldogs 3-2 with the help of a Becca Strehow (Long Beach, Calif./Woodrow Wilson/UCLA) triple-double and four freshmen in double-figure kills to advance the season's overall record to 16-10 and WCC record to 7-6.

Pepperdine was once again led by setter Strehlow as the senior garnered her first triple-double of the 2015 campaign and fourth of her career after putting up 48 assists, 19 digs and 10 block assists. She also posted four kills and two service aces in the effort

Freshmen Heidi Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS), Nikki Lyons (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas HS) and Tarah Wylie (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral HS) led the Waves on the attack with double-figure kills.

Dyer led the team with 16 kills, and with only three errors in 43 attempts, tallied a .302 hitting percentage. She also led the team with four aces, while completing her double-double action with 12 digs. Lyons posted 14 kills, seven digs and 25 serve receptions for the Waves. Wylie ended the night with 12 digs and five errors in 22 attempts for a .318 success rate on the attack, while amassing three aces, six digs and five blocks for the Waves.

Freshman Jenna Tunnell (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista HS) and junior Brooke Honeycutt (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista HS) also performed highly for Pepperdine. Tunnell picked up nine kills, two block assists and two digs and Honeycutt ended with seven kills, a .231 hitting percentage, eight block assists and three digs for the Waves. Senior libero Lara Dykstra (Redondo Beach, Calif./Redondo Union HS/Nebraska) also helped the cause with 15 kills, four assists and 23 serve receptions on the night.

As a team, the Waves picked up a .214 hitting percentage after posting 63 kills and 27 errors in 168 attempts. Pepperdine added 57 assists, nine aces, 68 digs and 26 block assists.

In the first set, the Waves found themselves down 6-1, but rallied after an ace by Lyons at the service line. After the 7-2 run to tie the score, the home team would begin to pull away from the opposition, eventually amassing a 19-10 lead late in the set. The Zags put up a good rally effort, but the Waves were successful in putting set one away 25-19 to go up 1-0 on the night.

Both teams went neck and neck to start the second set, with a 4-4 tie early on, but the Bulldogs put up some big play later in the set to jump to a 16-12 lead. Despite a big effort by the Waves, a Zags' ace and a few more opposition kills put the set in the opposition's court at 25-18 to even the match.

In the beginning of the third set, it was unclear who would come out victorious as the score saw ties at 9-9 early in the set. The Waves began to break away to a 14-11 lead, but the Zags were never too far behind eventually tying the score 22-22. A shallow Strehlow ace and a threatening Waves defense sealed the deal, finishing set three with a 25-22 decision in the Waves advantage.

As evenly matched as both teams had been in the previous three sets, the fourth was no different. With a 10-10 tie score that quickly reached a 15-15 tie, Gonzaga buckled down and worked toward a 25-19 set win to even the match 2-2 and send things into the fifth set.

The fifth set was equally as thrilling with the opposition as well as the home team putting in an intense effort for the win. Pepperdine worked off the first serve towards a 4-0 led with Dyer at the service line, picking up her fourth ace of the night. The Zags evened the set up 5-5 before the Waves worked away to a 10-8 lead. The Bulldogs stayed in the game and tied things up point-for-point with the Waves until Pepperdine had the service with the score tied 13-13. A pair of Tarah Wylie kills quickly ended the match 15-13 in the Waves favor, once again providing fans with a more than thrilling result for the home team.

Next, the Waves continue this week's WCC play at home by hosting Portland on November 7 at 1 p.m. Watch live and follow live stats by following this link: http://gowav.es/WVB2013. Also, follow @WavesVolleyball on Twitter and Facebook for live updates, and go to PepperdineSports.com for the latest results and recaps.