MALIBU, Calif. — It was a see-saw battle to say the least in Firestone Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon, as the #23 Pepperdine women's volleyball team overcame 37 tied scores and 17 lead changes en route to a tight 3-2 victory over PCH Cup rival LMU. The victory extended the Waves winning streak to six matches for the second time this season, improving the team's overall record to 12-1 and West Coast Conference record to 4-0.
After the Waves pulled ahead 2-0 with 25-23 and 34-32 set wins, the Lions rallied with two 25-20, 25-23 set wins of their own to force a fifth set.
LMU came out to a 4-0 lead to open the fifth set and put the Waves on their heels. After a 5-1 lead, though, Pepperdine put game faces on and started inching back courtesy of a block from
Rosie Ballo and
Emma Ammerman and multiple errors from across the net. The Lions pushed ahead 8-6, but the Waves were once again close behind to tie things up at 8's. A sneaky kill from
Isabel Zelaya gave the home team the first lead of the set, though LMU would counter after a timeout to tie things yet again. An ace from
Kayla Joyce helped the cause and a kill from
Rachel Ahrens put the Waves ahead 13-12 heading into the final moments.
Meg Brown would snag an ace of her own to put Pepperdine in a place to win the match, and the Waves would do just that after capitalizing on an LMU error for a 15-12 final set score and the 3-2 victory.
Grace Chillingworth and
Rachel Ahrens led the Waves with 18-kills apiece, while
Meg Brown and
Rosie Ballo led the squad with seven blocks including one solo rejection each.
Isabel Zelaya had another all-around way, dishing out 48 assists, while adding six blocks, three aces and four kills.
Madison Shields held down the back row with a season-best 23 digs.
BIG WAVES
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 48 assists, 3 aces, 6 blocks, 4 kills, .375%, 3 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 18 kills, 3 blocks (1 solo)
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 18 kills, 5 digs
Rosie Ballo (Dana Point, Calif./Dana Hills HS): 7 blocks (1 solo), 8 kills
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 7 blocks (1 solo), 4 kills, 3 aces, 3 digs
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 23 digs, 1 ace, 1 kill
Kayla Joyce (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS/FRC/CSU Chico): 4 digs, 3 aces, 2 assists
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 6 kills, 3 blocks
Trinity Stanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint HS): 6 digs
WAVES VS. LIONS
LMU led statistically in all categories, but one as Pepperdine possessed 10 aces to the opposition's six. The Lions charted 68 kills on a .220 clip with 52 digs and 15.5 blocks and the Waves were good for 59 kills on a .162 success rate with 48 digs and 15.0 team blocks. There were 37 tied scores and 17 lead changes throughout the entire match.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 14 11 37 .081
2 16 6 43 .233
3 9 8 25 .040
4 13 5 34 .235
5 7 2 28 .179
TTL 59 32 167 .162
LMU ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 10 6 25 .160
2 21 9 45 .267
3 13 7 28 .214
4 17 6 32 .344
5 7 5 29 .069
TTL 68 33 159 .220
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Roller coaster battle doesn't even begin to cover the match against PCH Cup rival LMU, though the Waves would be the first team to gain the edge early on. The Lions were the first to pull ahead 3-1, but the Waves were close behind with a kill from
Rosie Ballo and an ace from
Isabel Zelaya. Each side exchanged points through 8-8 before back-to-back kills from
Meg Brown and
Emma Ammerman and a block collaboration from Brown and Zelaya put the Waves ahead by two. With the score at 12-10, Brown hit the service line and an ace from her, followed by a block from Zelaya and Ballo and multiple attacking errors from across the net put the home team ahead 17-10.
The score would increase to 20-12 in the Waves favor, but the Lions were resilient, putting down a strong attack effort to bring the score within two-points at 22-20. Pepperdine buckled down, though, capitalizing on LMU errors and picking up a pair of
Rachel Ahrens kills to close the set 25-23.
In the second set, the Lions picked up a 4-1 lead to open before the Waves countered with kills from Ahrens and Ballo and an ace from
Isabel Zelaya to tie things up at 5's. The opposition then pulled ahead by seven-points with a 14-7 lead, but more kills from Ballo and Chillingworth, along with an ace from
Madison Shields helped keep the home squad in action. After tying the score at 22-apiece, an attack error put the Waves ahead.
The opposition tied, but another error from the Lions' service line gave the Waves a chance to close. Each side kept tying the set, however, with the Lions fighting off six set point opportunities by the Waves and Pepperdine fighting off three of their own. After a 32-32 even score, another pair of service and attacking errors by LMU helped put Pepperdine ahead 34-32 for the victory.
With the Waves leading 2-0 heading into the third set, each side was working hard – the Waves to win and the Lions to extend the match. After an 11-11 tied score, LMU went on a 6-0 scoring run to pull ahead. It would be a lead Pepperdine would be unable to overcome as the opposition took the set 25-20 to force a fourth.
The Waves came out swinging in the fourth, but so did the Lions. After another 10-10 tie, the Lions picked up a 5-1 run to pull ahead. The Waves brought things within one at 22-21 with a pair of consecutive kills from Chillingworth among other things, but the opposition still had momentum and used it to take a 25-23 set win to force the fifth.
After falling behind in the fifth set, the Waves would rally to overcome the Lions 15-12.
FOLLOW
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www.PepperdineWaves.com.
