Big Offense Propels #10 Waves to Season Opening Sweep

Sunday, January 7

Malibu, Calif.

5:00 PM

Pepperdine University

Cal Lutheran

Big Offense Propels #10 Waves to Season Opening Sweep

1/7/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball

Jan. 7, 2018

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

Box Score | Photos Highlights

MALIBU, Calif. -- The 10th-ranked Pepperdine men's volleyball team opened the 2018 season with a commanding 3-0 sweep over Cal Lutheran in Firestone Fieldhouse on Sunday night. The first match with David Hunt at the helm of the Waves was won with 25-18, 25-13 and 25-14 final set scores.

Redshirt-freshman Robert Mullahey spread out the Waves' offense towards a solid .406 hitting percentage, fueled by Noah Dyer and Colby Harriman's with 10-kills apiece.

BIG WAVES

Colby Harriman (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS): 10 kills, .250 hitting percentage, 2 aces, 2 blocks
Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS): 10 kills, .600 hitting percentage, 3 digs, 2 blocks
Robert Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS): 34 assists, 1 ace, 5 digs, 4 blocks
Clay Carr (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS): 5 kills, 5 blocks, 1 ace
Jack Cole (Lafayette, Calif./Campolindo HS): 7 kills, .778 hitting percentage, 4 blocks
Alex Harthaller (Innsbruck, Austria/Akademischeg Gymnasium/IPFW): 4 kills, 3 aces, 3 blocks, 13 serve receptions
Weston Barnes (Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach HS/George Mason): 7 digs, 12 serve receptions
Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS): 3 kills, .750 hitting percentage

WAVES VS. KINGSMEN

The Waves commanded the offensive with a .406 hitting percentage on 41 kills, while only allowing the Kingsmen 19 kills on a .016 success rate. Pepperdine also plastered eight aces throughout the match and gave up none with 39 success service receptions and no errors. The Waves added 10.5 team blocks, 23 digs and 38 assists, while CLU amassed 5.0 blocks, 12 dis and 19 assists throughout the night.

PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET

Set K-E-TA (Pct)

1. 16-7-30 (.300)

2. 11-2-18 (.500)

3. 14-4-21 (.476)

TOTAL: 41-13-69 (.406)

CAL LUTHERAN ATTACK BY SET

Set K-E-TA (Pct)

1. 7-5-23 (.087)

2. 7-8-21 (-.048)

3. 5-5-18 (.000)

TOTAL: 19-18-62 (.016)

PLAY-BY-PLAY

The Waves came out strong in the first official set of the season, commanding a quick 9-5 lead with aces from Harthaller and kills from Dyer, Carr and Harthaller. Pepperdine continued to hit hard as Dyer led the offensive and Harriman delivered some power from the outside en route to a 21-16 advantage. Dyer and Harthaller combined in the final points to shut the set down 25-18 and pull ahead.

Pepperdine worked with the momentum of the first set win and busted out to another 9-5 lead that turned into a 16-7 gap. Harthaller was good for back-to-back aces late in the set and Harriman produced the final kill to extend the Waves' lead to 2-0 on the night with the 25-13 set win.

The Waves came out in the third set intent on closing things down with the sweep. After amassing a close 7-5 gap early, the Waves went off on a 10-3 run with a strong service from Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) including an ace and kills from Gettinger and Harriman. An ace from Carr late in the set and back-to-back smashes from Troy Magorien (Agoura Hills, Calif./Westlake HS), Pepperdine was in a position to win. Gettinger, Mullahey and Carr combined at the net to pick up the Waves' match victory with the 25-14 final set win on a Malibu Roofing Company rejection.

QUOTABLES

"We've been working on implementing a few things offensively," said head coach David Hunt. "I thought we were able to do that. There were small things here and there that each individual guy was trying to work on, so we saw a lot of small individual successes.

Now, we start watching UC Irvine tonight to get ready for next week, put a game plan together tomorrow and then start implementing during the week."

NEXT UP

Next, the Waves host UC Irvine on January 14 in Firestone Fieldhouse. Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @PeppVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @PepperdineWaves. Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.