Pepperdine University
UC San Diego
West Charts Career Assist No. 4000, Waves Sweep UCSD
2/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Box Score: #6 Pepperdine 3, UC San Diego 0 
MALIBU, Calif. - The #6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team shut out UC San Diego on Friday night, 25-19, 25-14, 25-22. Senior Matt West surpassed the 4,000 career assists milestone, becoming just the second Wave in program history to do so.
West (Seattle, Wash./Shorewood HS) dished 41 assists in the three-set win, bringing his career total to 4,029. He joins former assistant coach and the Waves' all-time assists leader Jonathan Winder* as the only other Pepperdine player to record at least 4,000 assists in his four years in Malibu.
West also added seven digs, three kills and a pair of blocks vs. the Tritons. The senior entered the contest with a season aces average of 0.45, good enough for 20th in the nation. With four more tonight, West brings his average up to 0.48.
The Waves, now 12-2 overall and 8-2 in MPSF play, hit .455 (50 kills-10 errors-88 attempts) as a team, led by Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif./Tesoro HS) with 13 kills (.478). The opposite also picked up his first double-double of the year with 10 digs.
Kalmbach had plenty of help on offense with both Scott Rhein (Pleasant View, Tenn./Aaron Academy) and Josh Taylor (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School) reaching double figures in kills. Rhein put down 13 while hitting .455 (13-3-22), followed by Taylor with 12, earned at a season-best .632 (12-0-19) clip.
UC San Diego swung for a reasonable .250 (34-11-92) rate as a team, but struggled to terminate the ball.
Pepperdine out-dug the Tritons 41-26, paced by Brennan Anderson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona Del Mar HS/Ohio State) with 12.
Tanner Syfestad led UCSD (1-13, 0-10 MPSF) with 12 kills.
Nikola Antonijevic (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson HS) finished the night with six kills and a match-high four blocks.;
Rhein served his team out to a 7-1 start before Pepperdine settled in and the Tritons found a bit a rhythm. UCSD cut the deficit and tied the match up at 16, but the Waves would not be rattled. A 7-2 run gave the Waves all the momentum they would need. West sealed the set at 25-19 with an ace.
After a minor 2-4 setback to open the second frame, Pepperdine found its groove and controlled the tempo the rest of the way. The Tritons were forced to take their second timeout at 18-10 after allowing five unanswered points and were unable to regroup. West once again did the honors of dishing an ace at set point, 25-14.
Although set three was far from a runaway, the Waves were still in firm control. Taylor went an errorless 7-for-8 on the attack to help clinch the shutout 25-22.
The Waves are now on the road for the next two weeks. They first make the return trip to Stanford (Feb. 27) before playing twice at Hawaii (March 6, March 8). Pepperdine's next home match is scheduled for Saturday, March 14 against UC Irvine.
*Winder recently accepted the women's volleyball assistant coaching position at Washington.
