PHOENIX, Arizona – The #6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team won the first set in Sunday afternoon's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at #13 Grand Canyon, but the Lopes rebounded and posted a four-set win (17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-17) over the Waves.
 
All five Pepperdine (6-5, 3-2) losses this season have come to nationally ranked teams on the road. Grand Canyon (12-3, 4-1) moved ahead of the Waves and into second place in the MPSF standings.
 
BIG WAVES

• Redshirt freshman opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had a team-high 12 kills along with six digs.
• Senior outside hitter Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS) had 11 kills on .345 hitting (11-1-29) and five digs.
• Redshirt freshman middle blocker JT Ardell (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West HS) had nine kills on .375 hitting (9-3-16) and six blocks.
• Junior outside hitter Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS) had eight kills and six digs.
• Freshman setter Joe Karlous (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS) had 33 assists and 11 digs.

MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .212 overall (.435 set one, .214 set two, .152 set three, .103 set four)
• GCU hitting: .269 overall (.161 set one, .179 set two, .273 set three, .481 set four)
• Service Aces: PEPP 3, GCU 3
• Digs: PEPP 36, GCU 33
• Blocks: PEPP 9, GCU 10
• Grand Canyon was led by Camden Gianni's 19 kills and Christian Janke's 16 kills and 10 digs.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves never trailed in set one and hit an impressive .435 for the set. At 9-8, Pepperdine scored three straight points, the last two on a kill by Steele and a block by junior middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine). At 15-14, kills by Dyer and Steele made it a three-point advantage. At 20-17, the Waves ended the set with five straight points on another Wilmot block, an ace by Steele, a kill by Karlous and two GCU attack errors.
 
The Waves built an 8-5 lead early in set two but the Lopes eventually tied it at 11. Pepperdine's last lead was at 17-16 after an Ardell kill, but Grand Canyon came back with a 4-0 run to go up 20-17, and they'd win that set by three to even the match up.
 
Set three was tied 16 times and had six lead changes, though the Waves' last lead came at 10-9. Still, it was close throughout, but tied at 23, the Lopes got the final two points on a kill and a Pepperdine attack error.
 
Trailing 9-8 in the third set, the Waves saw Grand Canyon score while serving three straight times, and the Lopes' lead grew to 15-10. A 3-0 run pushed the advantage to 19-13. The Waves closed to within four points, last at 20-16, but Grand Canyon ended the match by scoring five of the next six points.
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine returns home to face #3 UC Santa Barbara for the second time in less than a week on Wednesday (Feb. 26) at 7 p.m. The match will be streamed via WaveCasts with Al Epstein on the call.