MALIBU, California – The #9 Pepperdine men's volleyball team got the 2020 season underway with a three-set sweep of Cal Lutheran on Sunday afternoon in Firestone Fieldhouse.
 
The Waves (1-0) hit .382 for the match and held the Kingsmen to a negative-.037. CLU, an NCAA Division III school, was playing this match as an exhibition.
 
BIG WAVES

• Senior outside hitter Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS) had a match-high 10 kills on 18 errorless swings for a .556 hiiting percentage. He also shared the team high with six digs and added four block assists.
• Senior setter Rob Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS) directed the attack and posted 24 assists with three digs.
• Redshirt freshman opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had six kills and hit .600 on 10 attempts while adding four block assists and two aces.
• Sophomore outside hitter Ben Weinberg (Danville, Calif./San Ramon Valley HS) had five kills, four digs and three service aces.
• Redshirt freshman middle blocker JT Martin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons HS) had a match-high eight block assists along with three kills.
• Junior middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) had three kills, three block assists and five digs.
• Redshirt freshman libero Diego Perez (Irvine, Calif./Corona del Mar HS/Orange Coast CC) contributed six digs.

MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .382 overall (.600 set one, .286 set two, .360 set three)
• CLU hitting: negative-.037 overall (.042 set one, -.065 set two, -.074 set three)
• Service Aces: PEPP 7, CLU 1
• Digs: PEPP 31, CLU 20
• Blocks: PEPP 11.5, CLU 2.0
• Cal Lutheran was led by Andrew Reina's six kills.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
At 7-6 in the first set, the Waves went on an 11-2 run to take a double-digit lead at 18-8. The run featured three kills by Dyer, a couple of blocks involving Martin and an ace by Weinberg. The Waves ended the first set with four straight points, two of them on Steele service aces.
 
Cal Lutheran broke out to a 4-1 lead in set two, prompting a Pepperdine timeout. The Waves then turned a 7-4 deficit into a 10-7 lead with the help of two aces and a kill by Weinberg. A 5-0 run made it 15-8 and the Waves went on to win set two by seven.
 
The Waves never trailed in set three. At 11-9, the Waves started scoring repeatedly off their serve, extending the lead to 13-9, 16-10 and 18-11. At 19-13, the Waves ended the match on a 6-1 run, with Dyer collecting the final two kills of the afternoon.
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine next takes a three-match road trip to the East Coast, beginning with a match at Daemen on Tuesday, January 14.