MALIBU, California — The #8 Pepperdine men's volleyball team begins defense of its 2019 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title with a pair of road matches at #13 Stanford and #2 BYU.
MATCH #6 — Thursday (February 6) at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, California: #8 Pepperdine (3-2, 0-0) at #13 Stanford (4-4, 0-1) at 7 p.m.
MATCH #7 — Saturday (February 8) at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah: #13 Pepperdine at #2 BYU (10-0, 0-0, hosts UCLA on Thursday) at 5 p.m. MT / 4 p.m. PT.
WATCH/ONLINE — Stanford will stream Thursday's match through the Pac-12, while BYUtv will air Saturday's match. Links to broadcasts and/or live stats can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.
OPPONENTS — Pepperdine is 57-27 all-time against Stanford and has won five in a row and eight of the last 10. The Waves have won five straight matches at Stanford ... Pepperdine is 36-32 all-time against BYU. Pepperdine won two of the three meetings last year. The Waves' last victory in Provo came in 2016.
LAST WEEK — The Waves were off last week, but in their last match on January 25, they suffered a four-set loss to defending national champion Long Beach State on a night that the Beach raised the championship banner.
Ben Weinberg had 14 kills and
Diego Perez had 11 digs. The Waves were outhit .318 to .262.
NEW LOOK — After graduating the bulk of last year's lineup, the Waves have a much different look in 2020. 73.8% of the kills so far have been recorded by players not in last year's lineup, and 51.9% of have been made by players in their first year on the court for Pepperdine (including redshirts and transfers).
50 SEASONS — This is the 50th season for Pepperdine men's volleyball — which began in 1971 — and the program's rich history will be celebrated throughout this spring's schedule. All Pepperdine men's volleyball alums will be welcomed back for the March 15 match vs. Harvard. The Waves will also celebrate each decade at various matches, beginning with the 1970s on February 12 vs. Concordia. The others are February 26 vs. UCSB (1980s), March 11 vs. Jamestown (1990s), March 21 vs. NJIT (2000s) and April 11 vs. Stanford (2010s).
NEXT — After more than a month without a match in Firestone Fieldhouse, the Waves finally get to play in front of the home crowd next week against #14 Concordia (Wednesday, February 12) and USC (Friday, February 14).
