MALIBU, Calif. — Another day, another sweep in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play for the #5 Pepperdine men's volleyball team, as the Waves take down #9 Stanford on Friday night with 25-21, 25-22 and 25-21 final set scores.
 
In the second top-10 sweep of the week, three Waves hit for double-figures, led by redshirt-senior David Wieczorek with 14 kills on a career-high .737 success rate and three aces.  Seniors Michael Wexter and Kaleb Denmark also hit the double-digit mark with 12 and 10 kills respectively, while Denmark also added three aces of his own.
 
BIG WAVES
David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy): 14 kills – 0 errors – 19 attempts, .737 hitting %, 3 aces, 2 digs, 2 blocks (1 solo)
Kaleb Denmark (Redlands, Calif./Arrowhead Christian Academy): 10 kills, 3 aces, 2 digs, 1 block
Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Linoln-Way West HS): 12 kills, .304 hitting %, 6 digs, 1 block, 2 assists
Robert Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS): 34 assists, 7 digs, .370 team hitting %
Max Chamberlain (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs HS): 6 kills, .750 hitting %, 1 ace, 2 blocks
Kévin Vaz (Paris, France/Palmetto HS (Fla.)/Cal Baptist): 2 blocks (1 solo), 2 kills, 1 ace
Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley HS): 4 digs, 3 assists


 
WAVES VS. CARDINAL
Pepperdine was unstoppable in many aspects of the game against Stanford, plastering 44 kills on a collective .370 clip, while allowing only 36 kills on a .284 output from the opposition.  The Waves also added eight aces and 41 assists as compared to two aces and 36 assists across the net.  Each side collected on 5.0 team blocks and 22 digs throughout the match.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          13        6          25        .280
2          16        6          29        .345
3          15        2          27        .481
TTL      44        14        81        .370
 
STANFORD ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          11        5          25        .240
2          14        3          29        .379
3          11        5          27        .222
TTL      36        13        81        .284

 

NOTABLES

• Pepperdine has gone 6-2 against ranked opponents this season and 5-2 against top-10 ranked opponetns.
• David Wieczoek has now amassed 1,036 career kills and 112 career aces.  His ace mark is currently ranked 9^th in the Pepperdine men's volleyball record books.
• Wieczorek leads the squad with 153 kills and 3.92 kills/set, along with 21 aces and 0.54 aces/set.  He has posted double-figure kills nine times this season and 58 times in his career.
• Michael Wexter reached the double-figure kill mark for the 8^th time this season and the 17^th time in his career.  He is second on the team with 3.31 kills/set.
• Kevin Vaz leads the Waves with 1.00 blocks/set this season, with 33 total blocks including three solo rejections.  Wexter, Wieczorek and Max Chamberlain are next in terms of blocking efforts, as each has marked 22 blocks apiece.
• Robert Mullahey leads the Waves in assists this season with 9.46, ranking 19^th nationally and 4^th in the MPSF.
• Noah Dyer leads the Waves in the back row with 80 total digs to average 2.05 digs/set.
• Prior to this match, the Waves ranked 6^th nationally and 1^st in the MPSF with 28.69 attacks/set, as well as 6^th national in kills/set, assists/set, hitting percentage and win-loss percentage.
• Individually, prior to the match tonight, Wieczorek ranked 11^th nationally in points/set, 12^th in aces/set, 16^th in kills/set and 18^th in attacks/set.  Dyer ranked 21^st in digs/set and Kévin Vaz ranked 27^th in blocks/set. 
• Overall, seven Waves are ranked in at least one national statistical category, while three Waves are ranked in five separate categories and two are ranked in six.  The three are David Wieczorek, Kaleb Denmark and Michael Wexter.

 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Each side of the court came out hustling in the first set, reaching 6-6, 11-11 and 16-16 tied scores before the Waves started to inch away towards the lead.  A big service effort from Kaleb Denmark, including an Asics Ace, along with a rejection from Kévin Vaz and Denmark to earn a 20-16 lead for Pepperdine.  Down the stretch, the Cardinal came as close as 22-20, but smashes from Michael Wexter and David Wieczorek, along with a block from Wexter and Max Chamberlain helped the team to a 25-21 set win.
 
Despite the momentum from the first set being on Pepperdine's side, Stanford came out with a 5-2 lead after some kills found the floor.  After a 10-10 tie, the Waves once again started to edge away, amassing a 20-17 lead.  The Cardinal tried to close the gap, but were unsuccessful, as the Waves posted smashes from Wexter and Denmark to close the set 25-22 and send Pepperdine into a match-point opportunity in the third.
 
In the final set, the Waves came rolling out of the starting gate, collecting a quick 10-5 lead with smashes from Denmark and Chamberlain and featuring a well-placed Chamberlain ace.  Vaz put down an ace of his own and Chamberlain laid down a few big kills to keep the Waves in the lead.  Late in the action, Wieczorek had a display of monster kills and Vaz shut the match down with a loud solo block to close the set 25-21 and the match with the second top-10 sweep of the week.
 
NEXT UP
Next, Pepperdine will make a short trip to CSUN on February 13, before trekking to Arizona to taken on Grand Canyon on February 15.  The next time the Waves will be home is March 12 against George Mason.  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.