PROVO, Utah – The #7 Pepperdine men's volleyball team took the first set off #1 BYU and pushed the Cougars to the limit in the next three, but the hosts prevailed in four sets (23-25, 28-26, 25-23, 26-24) on Saturday night in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action.
 
Six of the seven sets played this weekend between the Waves (2-2, 2-2) and the Cougars (3-1, 3-1) were decided by two points.
 
BIG WAVES

• Sophomore opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) knocked down a career-high 19 kills on .389 hitting (19-5-36). He also had five digs.
• Senior outside hitter Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) collected 16 kills and six digs while hitting .344 (16-5-32).
• Senior outside hitter Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS) had eight kills, four digs and three blocks.
• Freshman setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) posted 32 assists and four digs.

MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .357 overall (.406 set one, .375 set two, .320 set three, .304 set four)
• BYU hitting: .330 overall (.320 set one, .344 set two, .222 set three, .393 set four)
• Service Aces: PEPP 2, BYU 7
• Digs: PEPP 28, BYU 30
• Blocks: PEPP 7.0, BYU 8.0
• BYU got 16 kills from Gabi Garcia Fernandez and 14 from Davide Gardini.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The first set featured 11 ties and three lead changes. The last tie was at 16-16, as a Gettinger kill and a BYU attack error followed. Pepperdine went up by three at 22-19 on a block by Steele and freshman middle blocker Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS). BYU got it back to within a point, but Steele eventually ended the first set with a kill.
 
Pepperdine jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the second set after a block by Gettinger, and still led by three at 17-14 after a Dvorak kill. BYU tied it up at 18, however. Pepperdine went up 25-24 after a Gettinger kill and a BYU attack error and served for the set, but BYU got the sideout. Tied at 26, the Cougars scored the next two points via kills to even the match at a set apiece.
 
BYU scored the first three points of set three and never trailed. The Cougars went up by five at 7-2, and had a five-point lead again late at 21-16. BYU led 24-20 when the Waves ran off three straight points, including kills by Wickens and Fuller, before BYU finally got a kill to go up 2-1.
 
The Cougars led for nearly the entirety of the fourth set and went up by as many as four. But the Waves battled back, going from 20-16 to tied at 21 behind a couple of Gettinger kills and a block by senior middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine). It was tied again at 23 and 24, but BYU scored the final two points of the match via a service error and an attack error.
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine's planned matches against Concordia were canceled, so instead the Waves will go play twice at Stanford (Thursday, Feb. 18, at 9 a.m., and Saturday, Feb. 20, at 3 p.m.).