MALIBU, California — The #6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team heads out for its final road trip of the regular season while resuming Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with matches at #8 Stanford and #9 BYU.
The Waves will be looking for a season sweep of both the Cardinal and the Cougars, while needing victories to stay ahead of these teams in the MPSF standings.
MATCH #20 — Thursday (March 14) at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, California: #6 Pepperdine (14-5, 4-2) at #8 Stanford (13-7, 4-3) at 7 p.m.
MATCH #21 — Saturday (March 16) at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah: #6 Pepperdine at #9 BYU (9-6, 4-3, hosts UCLA on Thursday) at 7 p.m. MT / 6 p.m. PT.
WATCH/ONLINE — Stanford will have a live stream of the match through Pac-12.com. Saturday's match will be shown on BYUtv. Links to broadcasts and live stats can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.
OPPONENTS — After a pair of three-set sweeps at home earlier this season, the Waves are now 56-27 all-time against Stanford and 35-31 all-time against BYU. Pepperdine has won four consecutive matches at Stanford. The Waves have also won four straight and seven of the last nine against the Cardinal. The Waves have won in just one of their last seven trips to Provo. Pepperdine ended a four-match losing streak to BYU with the win in early February.
LAST WEEK — The Waves took a break from MPSF play to spend three matches in Hawai'i at the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Invitational, where they had a pair of three-set sweeps over #15 Ball State and King before a relatively close three-set loss to the #2 Rainbow Warriors.
Michael Wexter and
Kaleb Denmark made the all-tournament team. Pepperdine then played its first home match in a month on Tuesday and won 3-0 against #14 George Mason behind 13 kills from
David Wieczorek and 10 from Wexter.
NEXT — Pepperdine's final five matches are at home, including the Waves' last non-conference match against #5 UC Irvine next Saturday (March 23).
PEPPERDINE VOLLEYBALL — Pepperdine has won five NCAA men's volleyball championships, second only to UCLA. Coaching legend
Marv Dunphy stepped down after the 2017 season. He won four of the NCAA titles, plus 612 matches over his 34 years with the Waves. Pepperdine has won 14 regular-season or tournament conference titles. The Waves have finished in the top six in the final AVCA poll in 17 of the last 22 seasons, and in the top 10 in 21 of the last 22 years. A Pepperdine alum has competed at the Olympics every time since 1984 (Sean Rooney won gold in 2008).
ABOUT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports — one of just 18 schools to have accomplished this feat — and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 25 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). Located in scenic Malibu, California, the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #46 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
