MALIBU, Calif. — A career attacking night and a stellar defensive night for seniors Rachel Ahrens and Madison Shields respectively, propelled the Pepperdine women's volleyball team to a four-set win over Saint Mary's in Firestone Fieldhouse on Thursday. 
 
Ahrens amassed a career-best 30 kills on a .411 hitting percentage, while Madison Shields dug up 27 from across the net including her 1,000^th career dig, to lead the Waves to victory.  Shields is the 13^th Wave all-time to have amassed over 1,000 digs and she now has 1,025 in her career.
 
It was Ahrens' 12^th match with more than 20 kills in her career, and the first time a Wave has cracked 30 kills since 2008.  Only two others have other achieved the feat in Pepperdine program history, Katie Wilkins with 32 in 2003 and Julie Rubenstein with 31 in 2008.
 
After splitting the first two sets 25-17, 25-27, the Waves (17-4, 9-3 WCC) took the final two sets 25-21, 25-16 to earn the win over the Gaels (13-9, 7-6 WCC).  Isabel Zelaya dished out 60 assists en route to a .379 collective team hitting percentage with 67 kills overall. 
 
BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 30 kills, .411 hitting %, 8 digs, 2 blocks, 1 ace
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 27 digs, 4 assists
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 60 assists, 5 digs, 2 blocks, 1 kill
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 16 kills, .481 hitting %, 3 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 10 kills, .308 hitting %, 2 blocks, 3 digs
Kayla Joyce (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS/FRC/CSU Chico): 12 digs, 2 aces
Rosie Ballo (Dana Point, Calif./Dana Hills HS): 2 blocks, 8 kills


 
WAVES VS. GAELS
Pepperdine amassed 67 kills with a .379 success rate, while allowing Saint Mary's only 44 kills on a .206 clip.  The Gaels posted five aces and 7.0 blocks to the Waves four aces and 6.0 blocks, but Pepperdine led by 20 with 62 digs to take the game defensively.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set    K       E       TA     Pct
1       20      3       34      .500
2       15      8       39      .179
3       16      0       25      .640
4       16      6       34      .294
TTL   67      17      132    .379
 
SAINT MARY'S ATTACK BY SET
Set    K       E       TA     Pct
1       11      2       31      .290
2       12      5       39      .179
3       12      3       27      .333
4       9       7       34      .059
TTL   44      17      131    .206
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Pepperdine came out ready to play in the first set, quickly amassing a 6-1 lead, courtesy of a pair of aces from Kayla Joyce and another ace from Reagan Goeke in her first start of the season.  The Waves continued to pound down on the Gaels, working to 8-3 and 14-5 advantages in the early moments.  Another pair of kills from Rachel Ahrens and Emma Ammerman put the Waves ahead 18-10, before SMC started closing the gap marginally at 20-14.  More smashes from Ahrens put the Waves ahead 22-14 and the Gaels found some attacks of their own to answer.  Pepperdine would be the ones to end things though, fueled by 20 kills in the set on a .500 clip for the team, as Ahrens put down her ninth monster kill of the set to give her team the 25-17 set win.
 
The second set was vastly different from the first as each team worked to a 7-7 tied score before the Gaels went on a 3-0 run to pull ahead.  Saint Mary's would build that lead out to six points at 15-9 before Pepperdine started closing the gap with a block from Rosie Ballo and Isabel Zelaya and kills from Ammerman.  Another block from Ahrens and Goeke and an attack error from across the net eventually tied things up at 19's and then each side worked virtually point-for-point towards a 23-23 tie.  The Waves had the first set point opportunity, but the Gaels fought it off and eventually took the set 27-25.
 
The third set was close to start as well, as each side work towards 14-14 on the scoreboard.  Pepperdine then posted a kill from Ahrens, followed by a Goeke, Grace Chillingworth block collaboration to work ahead 17-14.  The Waves kept the lead late in the action with an ace from Ahrens and kills from Ballo. Though the Gaels put two service aces down towards the final moments, back-to-back kills from Ballo and Ahrens closed things up 25-21 to put the Waves in a position to close the match.  Pepperdine amassed 16 kills in the set without a single error for a .640 success rate to help the cause as well.
 
The Waves were certainly ready to close things out in the fourth, offering the Gaels only 9 kills on a .059 clip throughout, compared to 16 kills on a .294 output from the home team.  After reaching 7's, a pair of kills from Ahrens pushed the Waves ahead by two.  SMC countered with a kill of their own, but Pepperdine delivered a 5-0 run with a pair of Ahrens' smashes, a kill from Chillingworth and a block from Ahrens and Goeke helping the cause.  After a 15-11 lead, the Waves went a 6-2 run with four more kills from Ahrens, including her career-best 30^th smash to boot.  Pepperdine ended the match with a 25-16 final set score.
 
 
FOLLOW
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