SPOKANE, Wash. — The #25 Pepperdine women's volleyball team came out ready to make an impact in the Martin Centre on Thursday night, dominating the court en route to 25-19, 25-17 and 25-16 set wins and the sweep over West Coast Conference opponent Gonzaga.
 
Rachel Ahrens and Grace Chillingworth led the attack for the Waves with 12-kills apiece, while Ahrens added 10 digs for her 10^th career double-double as well.  Ahrens also tabbed an ace, putting her three aces away from tying and four away from overtaking the Pepperdine women's volleyball record for most career aces, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since Nicole Sanderson did so from 1994-97 with 147 aces.
 
Pepperdine will be back in action on Saturday as the Waves (14-4, 6-3 WCC) make the trip to Portland to take on the Pilots at 12 p.m.
 
BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 12 kills, .417 hitting %, 10 digs, 1 ace, 1 block
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 12 kills
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 39 assists, 4 digs, 2 blocks, 3 kills
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 14 digs, 1 ace, 3 assists
Rosie Ballo (Dana Point, Calif./Dana Hills HS): 4 blocks (2 solos), 3 kills
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 8 digs, 2 blocks (1 solo), 5 kills
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 7 kills, .333 hitting %, 2 digs
Trinity Stanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint HS): 7 digs
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 5 kills, .500 hitting %, 3 digs
Kayla Joyce (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS/FRC/CSU Chico): 1 ace
 
WAVES VS. BULLDOGS
Though Gonzaga lead by one block with 7.0 team blocks, Pepperdine led in all other categories.  The Waves marked 47 kills on a .299 clip, while the Bulldogs were good for 30 kills on a .147 output.  Pepperdine also led with three aces and 50 digs to Gonzaga's one ace and 34 digs throughout.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          15        7          37        .216
2          14        5          27        .333
3          18        3          43        .349
TTL      47        15        107      .299
 
GONZAGA ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          10        4          36        .167
2          8          7          20        .034
3          12        4          37        .216
TTL      30        15        102      .147
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Each side went point-for-point to start things off in Spokane, seeing 4-4 and then an 8-8 tied score.  A pair of kills from Grace Chillingworth helped push the Waves ahead en route to a 12-9 advantage.  Though the Bulldogs evened things up with a 3-0 run, Pepperdine regained composure and kills from Rachel Ahrens and Rosie Ballo, followed by a Ballo, Isabel Zelaya block collaboration earned the squad an 18-14 lead.  The Waves were able to keep that lead throughout the rest of the set as kills from Emma Ammerman pushed the squad to a 22-17 lead late in the action.  With momentum on their side of the court, another set of kills from Chillingworth closed things down 25-19.
 
It may have been close to open the second set, but the Waves quickly closed that down as smashes from Ahrens built a comfortable 7-3 lead over the home team.  Two separate 4-0 runs featuring more kills from Ahrens and Chillingworth and Pepperdine held a 14-6 lead.  With the energy working for the Waves, Zelaya continued to move the ball around and a pair of kills from Ammerman helped earned the squad a 20-10 lead down the back stretch.  Gonzaga collected on a few plays to close the gap marginally, but two kills from Ahrens late in the set resulted in a 25-17 set victory.
 
With the 2-0 lead heading into the third set, the Waves came in ready to close and a block collaboration from Ahrens and Meg Brown, followed by smashes from Ahrens and Brown gave Pepperdine a nice 7-3 lead.  An ace from Kayla Joyce and kills from Ballo and Zelaya improved the Waves' lead to 12-5.  More big kills from Ammerman, Chillingworth and Kayleigh Hames continued to help push Pepperdine to victory.  After a 20-11 lead, the Bulldogs found the floor for a few points, but a sneaky Zelaya kill, followed by smashes from Hames and Ammerman had the Waves leading 23-15 down the back stretch.  An error from across the net, followed by a final smash from Hames finished things off 25-16 for Pepperdine and 3-0 for the overall victory. 
 
FOLLOW
Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @WavesVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @peppvolley.  Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.