MALIBU, California – Playing in Firestone Fieldhouse for the first time in a month, the #6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team stayed unbeaten at home with a three-set sweep (25-19, 25-17, 25-21) of #14 George Mason in non-conference play on Tuesday night.
 
The Waves improved to 14-5 overall and 7-0 in home matches. The Patriots fell to 12-5.
 
BIG WAVES

• Senior outside hitter David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) had a team-high 13 kills without an error on 21 swings, good for a .619 hitting percentage. He also had three blocks.
• Senior opposite Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West HS) also reached double-figures in kills with 10 and hit .444. He had seven digs and three blocks.
• Senior outside hitter Kaleb Denmark (Redlands, Calif./Arrowhead Christian Academy) had eight kills and seven digs.
• Sophomore setter Robert Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS) handed out 30 assists and had seven digs.
• Sophomore libero Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) recorded a career-high and match-high nine digs.

MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .333 overall (.480 set one, .300 set two, .241 set three)
• GMU hitting: .135 overall (.212 set one, .038 set two, .133 set three)
• Service Aces: PEPP 5, GMU 2
• Digs: PEPP 33, GMU 23
• Blocks: PEPP 8.0, GMU 2.0
• George Mason's Hayden Wagner had nearly half of his team's blocks with 15, but no other Patriot had more than five.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves opened the first set swinging heavy, but so did George Mason, resulting in a tie score throughout a majority of the early action. At 13-13, Pepperdine started landing more offensively, and kills from Wexter and back-to-back blocks from Wexter and senior middle blocker Max Chamberlain (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs HS) helped the home team take a 20-17 lead. It was a lead Pepperdine would continue to grow en route to a 25-19 first set win.
 
Although the second set started with another see-saw battle, the Waves quickly started to gain momentum after kills from Chamberlain and blocks from Wexter, Wieczorek and Chamberlain toward a 13-8 lead.  Pepperdine continued to remain ahead of the Patriots throughout the set, leading 18-13 after a block collaboration with Denmark and graduate transfer middle blocker Kevin Vaz (Paris, France/Cal Baptist). A final smash from Denmark earned the Waves a 25-17 set win for the advantage heading into the third.
 
In the third and final set, the Patriots came out strong, amassing a 7-2 lead over the Waves. A pair of aces from Vaz, paired with a Vaz and Wieczorek block effort plus kills from Wieczorek and Denmark helped the Waves post a 7-2 run of their own to tie things up.  Three more smashes from Wieczorek put the Waves ahead, and the teams continued to go back-and-forth en route to a 20-20 tie. Wieczorek and Chamberlain went up for the block to force a George Mason timeout, and a pair of kills from Wieczorek and Wexter shut things down with the 25-21 final set win to complete the sweep.
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine plays its final two road matches this weekend, resuming Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play at #8 Stanford on Thursday (March 14) at 7 p.m. and at #9 BYU on Saturday (March 16) at 6 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. MT.