GAME NOTES

MALIBU, Calif.: - After closing out the 2016 regular season last week, the seventh-ranked Pepperdine men's volleyball team will head into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament as the number six seed. The Waves will trek to Long Beach, Calif. to challenge fifth-ranked and third-seeded Long Beach State in The Walter Pyramid on Saturday.

Last week, Pepperdine fell in four sets twice on the road, first dropping to seventh-ranked UC Santa Barbara before falling at fourth-ranked UCLA. Redshirt-senior Matt Tarantino led the Waves with six blocks and seven digs on Wednesday, while amassing 12 kills against the Gauchos. He continued to top the leaderboards on Saturday with 19 kills on a .375 hitting percentage.

MATCH 24 - Saturday (April 16) at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.: No. 7 Pepperdine (13-10, 12-10 MPSF) vs. No. 4 Long Beach State (23-6, 17-5 MPSF), 7 p.m. | MPSF Quarterfinal

COVERAGE - Can't make it out to the match? No problem! Links to any available live stats, video and audio can always be found by clicking on a particular event on the men's volleyball schedule page at PepperdineSports.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA - Follow men's volleyball on Twitter and Facebook, @PeppVolleyball. Stay tuned into all Pepperdine Athletics on Instagram, @PepperdineWaves, and follow the Waves on YouTube for match highlights and special features.

LOOKING AHEAD - Pending a win on Saturday, the Waves would then move to the MPSF Semifinals on April 21. If one-seeded BYU continues through the quarterfinals, the semifinals and finals will be played in Provo, Utah on April 21 and 23.

WAVES IN MPSF TOURNAMENT ALL-TIME - This season marks the 22nd time the Waves have entered the MPSF tournament, dating back to the first year in 1993 when Pepperdine reached the semifinals. The team has garnered four MPSF championships and has an all-time MPSF tournament record of 25-17. The Waves have made the tournament in the last four consecutive seasons, reaching the finals in the 2015 campaign before falling in four sets to top-ranked UC Irvine. Against Long Beach State, Pepperdine holds a 5-1 record in MPSF postseason play, including the 2014 season where the Waves downed the 49ers in four sets.

MPSF TOURNAMENT - On Saturday, top-seeded BYU will host eight-seeded UC Irvine, five-seed UCSB will challenge four-seed Stanford and seven-seeded Hawai'i will head to two-seeded UCLA, along with six-seeded Pepperdine's match at three-seeded Long Beach State. On Thursday, April 21, the top remaining seed will host the semifinal and final matches.

LAST WEEK - The Waves head into postseason after dropping the final two matches of regular season last week, losing in four sets at both then seventh-ranked UC Santa Barbara and then fourth-ranked UCLA in hard-fought battles. At UCSB, the Waves posted a .227 hitting percentage, along with 11.5 team blocks and two aces en route to 25-20, 19-25, 26-28 and 18-25 final set scores. Sophomore Colby Harriman led the Waves with 14 kills on the night, while junior Mitchell Penning stopped the Gauchos advances at the net with eight blocks. Senior Matt Tarantino and junior James Gehrels also hit for double-figures with 12 and 10 kills respectively.

At UCLA, Pepperdine and the home team split the first two sets, 18-25 and 25-21 to tie the match before the Bruins pulled away with 25-16 and 25-23 set wins to secure the 3-1 victory. The Waves picked up a .223 hitting percentage, 2.5 team blocks and four aces on the night. Tarantino led the Waves with 19 kills on a .375 attack output throughout, while adding four digs. Junior Joshua Stewart led the team with 42 assists and added five digs and sophomore Weston Barnes led the squad with nine digs.

THE NO. 7 WAVES - The Waves head into the MPSF tournament as the number six seed and ranked seventh in the AVCA Coaches Poll with a 13-10 overall record and 12-10 record in MPSF competition. The team puts out a .298 hitting percentage this season after averaging 12.83 kills/set. The team also produces, 12.18 assists/set, 1.31 aces/set, 7.64 digs/set and 2.70 blocks/set against opponents. The Waves rank fourth nationally in blocks/set, eighth in assist/set, ninth in both hitting percentage and kills/set and 19th in aces/set to name a few.

Senior Tommy Carmody ranks third in the nation with 1.45 blocks/set this season. He has tabbed 96 total blocks, including nine solos for Pepperdine. Senior Matt Tarantino ranks nationally in five separate categories. He is eighth with 4.67 points/set, 10th with 3.94 blocks/set and 28th with a .319 hitting percentage, while also ranking in both aces/set and blocks/set for the Waves. Freshman David Wieczorek and juniors Joshua Stewart and Mitchell Penning are also highly effective this season. Wieczorek ranks 20th nationally with a .337 hitting percentage, 21st with 0.36 aces/set and 48th with 3.56 points/set. Stewart is ranked 12th in the nation with 10.21 assists/set this season and Penning ranks 34th with 0.94 blocks/set. Sophomore libero Weston Barnes also ranks 30th with 2.00 digs/set on the season thus far.

OPPONENT NOTES: NO. 4 LONG BEACH STATE - The Waves hold a 51-43 all-time record against the 49ers as the team's head into the postseason competition. In recent years before the 2016 campaign, Pepperdine won the last four consecutive matches played against LBSU, winning three in four sets and one by way of sweep. This season, the 49ers have had the edge on the Waves, amassing two victories, first a 3-0 win in Long Beach before Pepperdine took the team to five sets at home late in the season before falling. Long Beach has won the last two competitions, first a five-set win over UC Irvine and a three-set sweep of UC San Diego, but prior to that, the 494ers dropped a four-set match at Stanford.

As a team, LBSU, posts a .331 attack percentage with 13.58 kills/set this season. The 49ers also average 12.86 assists/set, 1.43 aces/set, 9.60 digs/set and 2.39 blocks/set against opponents. TJ DeFalco leads the squad with 4.28 kills/set, while amassing a .304 success rate on the attack with 0.34 aces/set, 2.05 digs/set and 0.70 blocks/set. Taylor Gregory leads on the defensive with 90 blocks on the season, including two solo. Josh Tuaniga leads the team in play-making duties with 11.12 assists/set this season as well.

MPSF PLAYER OF THE WEEK - Senior Matt Tarantino garnered back-to-back MPSF/Molten Player of the Week honors this season on March 14 and 21 after helping the Waves to upsets over top-ranked BYU in Provo and third-ranked Stanford in Palo Alto. He was the first individual in the MPSF this season to garner back-to-back honors. The award marks Tarantino's (Van Nuys, Calif./Bishop Alemany HS) third career player of the week honor and second of the 2016 campaign. All three of his awards were received in the month of March (3/17/14; 3/14/16; 3/21/16).

NOTABLE WINS - Pepperdine has been making waves all season throughout the big competition of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation schools. Most recently, the Waves upset top-ranked BYU with a 3-1 win in Provo, Utah on March 19. The week before, Pepperdine had picked up the biggest upset of the season with a reverse sweep over third-ranked Stanford in Palo Alto on March 12. The first big wins of the season occurred on January 15 and January 22. First, the Waves took down fifth-ranked Hawai'i with a straight sweep to open the two-match series. Then in the following week, Pepperdine dropped fourth-ranked UC Irvine in four sets at home.

2016 AWARDS - The Waves are currently ranked No. 6 in the AVCA Coaches Poll. Senior Matt Tarantino most recently garnered back-to-back MPSF Player of the Week honors (March 14/March 21). Prior to the first match of the season, he was tabbed an Off The Block/Springbak, Inc. Preseason Second Team All-American selection and junior Mitchell Penning earned a spot on the honorable mention squad. The Waves were picked No. 7 in the MPSF Preseason Coaches Poll, and earned the No. 11 spot in the AVCA Top 15 Preseason Coaches Poll to start the season.

2015 AWARDS - The Waves returned only two starters from last year with Matt Tarantino, who tabbed All-MPSF second team honors last season, and Mitchell Penning. The Waves graduated six key letterwinners after last season, including four starters and a libero. Graduates Josh Taylor and Matt West were named to the AVCA All-American First Team, and Parker Kalmbach earned second team honors. The Waves led the MPSF with six All-MPSF selections: Josh Taylor, Matt West and Kalmbach were placed on the first team, while Tarantino and Brennan Anderson snagged second-team acclaim, and Scott Rhein picked up an honorable mention. Off the Block blog announced West as the co-winner of the Lloy Ball Award, along with USC's Micah Christianson, going to the top setter in the NCAA. Kalmbach was a finalist for the Bryan Ivie Award (best opposite). Taylor was a finalist for the Karch Kiraly Award (best outside hitter), with Penn State's Aaron Russell taking top honors.

VOLLEYBALL HISTORY - Pepperdine has won five NCAA men's volleyball championships, second only to UCLA. The Waves have won the MPSF Tournament three times and have won or shared 10 regular-season conference titles. The Waves have finished in the top six in the final AVCA poll in 16 of the last 18 seasons. Pepperdine student-athletes have won national player of the year honors nine times and All-American accolades 81 times. A Pepperdine alum has competed for the U.S. at the Olympics every time since 1984 (Sean Rooney won gold in 2008).

Marv Dunphy - Now in his 33rd season as head coach of the Waves, Marv Dunphy has time and again proven himself to be one of the top teachers in the sport. He has directed Pepperdine to four NCAA championships, each in a different decade (1978, 1985, 1992, 2005). He was the 2005 National Coach of the Year and is a three-time MPSF Coach of the Year. He entered the 2016 season with a career record of 589-254 (.699)*. Dunphy has long been involved with USA Volleyball, having been part of the coaching staff at six Olympics, including head coach of the 1988 team and consultant coach for the 2008 squad, both of which won gold. Dunphy, along with David Hunt and Joe Trinsey, were on staff when the U.S. Women's National Team won their first-ever gold medal at a major event (including the Olympics), after winning the 2014 FIVB World Championships. He has been inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame (1994), AVCA Hall of Fame (2009) and the Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame (2010).

ABOUT PEPPERDINE - Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I Championships in five different men's sports — one of just 17 schools to have accomplished this feat — and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 25 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks No. 52 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.