PALO ALTO, California – The #8 Pepperdine men's volleyball team defeated #13 Stanford in five sets (18-25, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 15-9) on Thursday night in the Waves' Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener.
 
The Waves improved their record to 4-2, 1-0 MPSF, while the Cardinal falls to 4-5, 0-2. This was Pepperdine's sixth straight victory at Stanford.
 
BIG WAVES

• Redshirt freshman opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had 13 kills, a career-high 12 digs and four blocks.
• Junior middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) had season highs of nine kills and 10 blocks.
• Senior outside hitter Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS) had 10 kills and five blocks.
• Junior outside hitter Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS) had 10 kills, four digs and three blocks.
• Redshirt freshman middle blocker JT Martin (Culver City, Calif./Windward HS) had eight kills and four blocks.
• Freshman setter Joe Karlous (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS) had 49 assists, three kills, five digs and two blocks.
• Redshirt freshman libero Diego Perez (Irvine, Calif./Corona del Mar HS/Orange Coast CC) had 11 digs.

MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .234 overall (-.029 set one, .333 set two, .250 set three, .200 set four, .611 set five)
• STAN hitting: .274 overall (.294 set one, .333 set two, .188 set three, .346 set four, .188 set five)
• Service Aces: PEPP 4, STAN 1
• Digs: PEPP 39, STAN 50
• Blocks: PEPP 14.5, STAN 4.5
• Stanford was led by Jaylen Jasper's 28 kills and 11 digs.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
In the first set, the Waves trailed early at 10-4 after kills from four different Stanford players. After several Cardinal errors, Martin earned a kill, bringing the Waves within five at 22-17. Two Pepperdine attack errors ended the set with Stanford in the lead 25-18.
 
Wilmot and Karlous got back-to-back kills early on in set two to put the Waves up 5-3. Steele and Dyer had their own pair of kills to extend the lead to 10-6. The lead remained with Pepperdine for the entire set, with Gettinger serving an ace to make it 24-21 and the Waves finishing out the set 25-22.  
 
The Waves started set three with an early kill by Steele and an ace by Wilmot for a 2-0 lead. The score was tied for the majority of the set before Pepperdine broke away with a kill by Gettinger and an ace by Steele, putting the Waves on top 15-14. The Cardinal ended the set with two errors and the Waves up 25-22.
 
The Waves jumped to a 9-4 lead early in the fourth set and was still up at 19-12. Pepperdine couldn't keep the lead, with the Cardinal earning the final nine points in the fourth set and ending at 25-20.
 
Pepperdine took the lead in the fifth with kills from Dyer and Gettinger to put the Waves up 5-1. At 10-8, they extended the lead during a 4-0 run with two kills from Dyer and one from Steele and the score was 14-8. Martin sealed the deal with the final kill on the night to help the Waves take set five at 15-9.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Waves will play at BYU on Saturday (Feb. 8) at 4 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. MT for their second MPSF matchup of the weekend.