WESTWOOD, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team gritted out a five-set win over San Diego in the Wooden Center at UCLA on Tuesday night, resulting in a 2^nd-place finish in the West Coast Conference for the Waves in 2018. 
 
The Waves (21-8, 14-4 WCC) pulled ahead with 25-17 and 25-22 first and second set wins, but USD (16-12, 13-5 WCC) countered with 25-18 and 25-22 set wins of their own to force a fifth.  It is the program's best conference finish since the 2011 season.
 
After falling behind by three to open the fifth, Pepperdine battled back to tie it evenly with a strong Blossom Sato service presence.  The Waves continued to smash the way to a three-point lead at 7-4 with kills from Heidi Dyer and Shannon Scully.  A kill from Alli O'Harra helped the Waves to a six-point lead 12-6, but the Toreros started to make a small comeback with the Waves' hanging on to a 13-11 lead.  Another O'Harra kill and a final Malibu Roofing Company rejection from Sato and Tarah Wylie helped Pepperdine to the 15-11 set win and overall victory.

The NCAA Selection Show will air live on ESPNU and on NCAA.com on Sunday, November 25 at 5:30 p.m. PT.  

BIG WAVES
Shannon Scully (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS/Utah): 16 kills, 11 digs, 2 aces, 3 blocks
Tarah Wylie (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral HS): 9 kills, .292 hitting %, 3 digs, 6 blocks, 1 ace
Alli O'Harra (Boise, Idaho/Centennial HS): 9 kills, .333 hitting %, 6 blocks
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 9 kills, .350 hitting %, 3 digs, 1 ace
Blossom Sato (Santa Monica, Calif./Santa Monica HS): 40 assists, 7 digs, 4 blocks, 3 kills
Hana Lishman (Kailua, Hawai'i/Punahou School): 14 digs, 7 assists, 3 aces
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 5 digs
Heidi Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS): 8 kills, .412 hitting %, 2 blocks, 1 ace
Jaiden Farr (Peterson, Utah/Morgan HS): 8 digs
Hannah Frohling (Edmond, Okla./Edmond North HS): 2 kills, 2 digs, 1 block
 
WAVES VS. TOREROS
San Diego led the floor with 60 kills, 57 assists and 64 digs compared to Pepperdine's 57 kills, 52 assists and 57 digs.  However, a .189 hitting percentage by the Waves compared to a .170 output from the opposition helped the cause, along with nine aces to the Toreros' three.  Each team also sported 13 blocks throughout the match.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          14         6          28         .286
2          12         9          32         .094
3          10         5          37         .135
4          11         6          39         .128
5          10         2          23         .348
TTL       57         27         159       .189
 
SAN DIEGO ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          9          6          28         .107
2          22         14         59         .136
3          17         7          43         .233
4          13         6          41         .171
5          8          4          22         .182
TTL       60         32         165       .170
 
NOTABLES

• All-time, Pepperdine leads San Diego 41-31, dating back to the 1979 season when the Waves won a match on the road in straight sets.  Earlier this season, the Waves fell to the Toreros on the road 3-0.
• Hannah Frohling has hit for double-figure kills in 17 matches this season and 57 throughout her career. 
• Frohling is currently at the 1,042 kill-mark in her career, surpassing the 1,000-career kill mark against Hawai'i in Malibu on November 6, 2018.
• Hana Lishman has put up 21 double-figure dig matches this season, with three above 20-digs, and 68 in her career.
• Lishman has amassed 1,250 digs throughout her career thus far.  She leads the Waves with 3.78 digs/set and 386 digs this season.
• Blossom Sato has led the Waves in assists in all but one match this season including a career-high 59 in the home opener against Idaho.  She averages 10.81 assists/set.
• Shannon Scully has posted 13 double-doubles this season, leading the Waves, including her most recent today with 16-kills and 11-digs.  She posted an impressive career-best output against Pacific on November 3, 2018 with 26-kills and 20-digs.
• On the season, Alli O'Harra leads the Waves with 1.19 blocks/set after amassing 113 total blocks with nine solo rejections. Tarah Wylie has marked 87 total blocks, including 10 solo rejections for 0.85 blocks/set.
• Alli O'Harra had led the Waves in blocks for 17-consecutive matches at one point earlier this season, including seven of them with seven blocks or more. 

 

PLAY-BY-PLAY
In the first set, the Waves came out rolling heavy, amassing a 13-5 lead with the help of an impressive Tarah Wylie serving presence, as well as kills from Alli O'Harra and Shannon Scully.  Pepperdine continued with a solid Heidi Dyer output at the line, featuring a block collaboration from O'Harra and Scully to put the Waves up 19-11. Late in the action, a solo rejection from Dyer helped the cause and a final smash from Scully closed the set with a 25-17 Waves' win.
 
In the second set, the Waves maintained a solid output throughout, seeing three near-consecutive aces from Hana Lishman and smashing the way to a solid 18-7 advantage. The opposition was able to mount a strong attack front to close the gap to one-point at the 22-21 mark, but Pepperdine remained resilient and a huge block from Blossom Sato and Wylie kept the Waves in the lead and Wylie closed up shop with a monster smash from the middle to give the Waves a 25-22 set win and a 2-0 lead heading into the third.
 
The Waves opened the third set with a commanding 6-1 lead with a block from Wylie and Hannah Frohling.  The Toreros came back to tie the score at 9-9 and overcome the Waves to a 15-12 advantage.  Rachel Ahrens made an appearance, quickly collecting three kills on a .750 hitting output in her first four plays to help the cause.  Despite Ahrens and the late comeback attempt, USD came away with the 25-18 set win to force a fourth. 
 
The fourth set was by far the closest, as each team worked point-for-point en route to a 13-13 tied score.  A kill from O'Harra and an attack error from the Toreros put the Waves ahead by two. Despite a strong effort, USD held on to a late lead and forced a fifth set with a 25-22 fourth set score.
 
After falling behind in the fifth, the Waves rallied back to a 15-11 set win and overall victory.
 


NEXT UP
The NCAA Selection Show will air live on ESPNU and on NCAA.com on Sunday, November 25 at 5:30 p.m. PT.  Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @WavesVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @peppvolley.  Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.