PHOENIX, Ariz. — The #5 Pepperdine men's volleyball team was met with quite a fight from Grand Canyon at the Antelope Gymnasium on Friday night, but the Waves were resilient after falling behind 2-1 to come back for the five-set Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory.
With the 15-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 15-12 five-set win, the Waves advance to 10-2 overall and 3-0 in the MPSF.
In the fifth set, Pepperdine used the momentum from late in the fourth to open the fifth with a 3-1 run. GCU stayed close, but the Waves were able to hit the eight-point mark first at an 8-5 score with kills from
Kaleb Denmark and
Michael Wexter. It was a lead the home team would be unable to overcome and the Waves took full advantage. Costly errors from the Lopes and big smashes from Wexter put Pepperdine in a position to win at 14-12. A GCU service error closed the match with a 15-12 set victory and the 3-2 Waves' win.
Wexter led with 19 kills on a .325 hitting percentage, while also leading with four aces. He added seven digs in the all-around effort.
David Wieczorek was next with 17 kills and three aces, while adding four digs and two blocks.
Robert Mullahey posted his third-career double-double win 45 assists and 10 digs.
BIG WAVES
Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Linoln-Way West HS): 19 kills, .325 hitting %, 4 aces, 7 digs
David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy): 17 kills, .328 hitting %, 3 aces, 4 digs, 2 blocks
Kaleb Denmark (Redlands, Calif./Arrowhead Christian Academy): 7 kills, 3 digs, 1 ace
Robert Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS): 45 assists, 10 digs, 1 block, 1 ace, 2 kills
Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley HS): 9 digs, 4 assists
Max Chamberlain (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs HS): 5 kills, 1 block, 1 ace
Kévin Vaz (Paris, France/Palmetto HS (Fla.)/Cal Baptist): 3 kills, 3 blocks
WAVES VS. ANTELOPES
Grand Canyon led the match with 58 kills on a .373 hitting percentage, along with 58 assists, 46 digs and 13.5 blocks. Pepperdine posted 54 smashes on a .203 clip, while adding 51 assists, 36 digs and 4.0 team blocks. The Waves led with 10 aces to the Lopes 1.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 4 10 28 -.214
2 14 6 30 .267
3 14 5 36 .250
4 11 1 22 .455
5 11 4 22 .318
TTL 54 26 138 .391
GRAND CANYON ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 10 1 20 .450
2 8 4 23 .174
3 18 5 36 .361
4 14 4 24 .417
5 8 0 15 .533
TTL 58 14 118 .373
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Grand Canyon came out firing in the first set and a strong service output, mixed with a big attack effort featuring a .450 hitting % propelled the Lopes to a 25-15 set win.
In the second set, Pepperdine worked back into the groove, hitting for a .267 throughout the set with 14 kills to pull ahead early. After some kills pushed the Waves to a 14-5 advantage, the Lopes were unable to overcome the deficit. Big smashes from
David Wieczorek and
Kaleb Denmark, along with an ace from
Michael Wexter helped the Waves to a 25-19 set win to tie the match.
After each side worked towards ties throughout the fourth set, including 11-11, 18-18 and 22-22 scoreboard reads, the Lopes posted a kill to get the lead at 23-22. Then, a block from across the net and a Lopes service error to make it 23-24. A final service error from Pepperdine's side of the net finished things up with a 25-23 GCU win for the lead heading into the fourth.
The fourth set was as tight as the third in the beginning. After GCU led 8-7, the Waves buckled down and collected a 5-2 run to pull ahead, including kills from Denmark and an ace from Wexter. With the match on the line, the Waves continued to roll and kills from Wieczorek pushed the lead to 22-16. The opposition collected a few points, but a kill by Wieczorek ended the set 25-18 in Pepperdine's favor to force a fifth set.
The Waves went on to win the fifth set 15-12.
NOTABLES
- Pepperdine has gone 7-2 against ranked opponents this season and 5-2 against top-10 ranked opponents.
- David Wieczoek has now amassed 1,065 career kills and 115 career aces. His ace mark is currently ranked 9th in the Pepperdine men's volleyball record books.
- Wieczorek leads the squad with 183 kills and 3.95 kills/set, along with 24 aces and 0.50 aces/set. He has posted double-figure kills 11 times this season and 60 times in his career.
- Wieczorek ranks 9th with 3.95 kills/set, 8th with 4.75 points/set, 12th with .50 aces/set and 19th with 8.17 attacks/set and 0.326 hitting %.
- Michael Wexter reached the double-figure kill mark for the 10th time this season and the 19th time in his career. He is second on the team with 3.36 kills/set.
- Kevin Vaz leads the Waves with 1.00 blocks/set this season, with 39 total blocks including five solo rejections. Wexter, Wieczorek and Max Chamberlain are next in terms of blocking efforts, as each has marked 23, 24 and 23 blocks respectively.
- Robert Mullahey leads the Waves in assists this season with 9.65, ranking 16th nationally and 4th in the MPSF.
- Noah Dyer leads the Waves in the back row with 96 total digs to average 2.05 digs/set.
- Prior to the match, the Waves ranked 3rd nationally with 12.67 assists/set and 13.62 kills/set. The team also ranks 4th with a .818 win-loss percentage, 5th with 28.79 attacks/set and 6th with 9.45 digs/set and 0.329 hitting percentage.
- Overall, seven Waves rank in at least one category nationally, while three Waves rank in five separate categories and two Waves rank in six categories.
NEXT UP
Next, the Waves return to California, but trek down south for a match at Concordia-Irvine on Friday, Feb. 22. Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @PeppVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @PeppMVB. Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on
www.PepperdineWaves.com.
