MORAGA, Calif. — Three players hit for double-figure kills, all with .429 hitting percentages or higher, in the Pepperdine women's volleyball team's four-set win at UCU Pavilion against West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary's on Wednesday afternoon.  With the 25-15, 23-25, 25-15, 15-12 win, the Waves improve to a 4-0 overall record in the 2020-21 season after sweeping past the Gaels and San Francisco thus far.
 
Rachel Ahrens led the Waves' attack effort with a career-best 21 kills on a .452 clip.  Shannon Scully marked her 30^th career double-double with 16 kills on a .429 output and 11 digs and Meg Brown tabbed 11 kills on a .500 success rate.
 
Adding to the big Waves' outputs included Isabel Zelaya with her third double-double of the season after tabbing 47 assists and 12 digs.  She also impressed by leading the Waves to a .376 collective team hitting percentage with 59 smashes and only nine errors in 133 swings.  Madison Shields also posted a career-high effort with 23 digs throughout four sets of action.
 
BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 21 kills, .452 hitting %, 6 digs, 2 blocks, 2 aces
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 47 assists, 12 digs, 1 ace
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 23 digs, 6 assists
Shannon Scully (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS/Utah): 16 kills, .429 hitting %, 11 digs, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 11 kills, .500 hitting %, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 7 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs
Alli O'Harra (Boise, Idaho/Centennial HS): 3 blocks, 3 kills
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 5 digs
Kayla Joyce (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS/Feather River/CSU Chico): 4 aces, 7 digs
 
WAVES VS. GAELS
Pepperdine outplayed Saint Mary's in all areas of play throughout the match, leading the attack with 59 kills on a .376 success rate, as opposed to a 44-kill effort from the Gaels on a .190 clip.  The Waves also amassed nine aces, 9.0 team blocks, 68 digs and 58 assists, compared to the opposition's six aces, 4.0 blocks, 56 digs and 41 aassists.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          15        3          25        .480
2          15        4          39        .282
3          12        1          30        .367
4          17        1          39        .410
TTL      59        9          133      .376
 
SAINT MARY'S ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          10        3          24        .292
2          16        6          41        .244
3          10        6          34        .118
4          8          3          38        .132
TTL      44        18        137      .190
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Pepperdine came out swinging in the first set, quickly pulling ahead to a three-point lead that Saint Mary's would be unable to overcome.  Kills from Rachel Ahrens and Shannon Scully set the tone for the entire match, and in the set would propel Pepperdine to a 14-10 lead towards the back end.  An Ahrens, Alli O'Harra block would extend the Waves lead and three-consecutive kills from Scully would help the cause towards a 25-15 first set win.
 
The second set would be close throughout, with a 13-13 tied score.  10 tied scores later in the set and a 23-23 score with a few points left to play, found the momentum in the Gaels' side of the court.  SMC won the set 25-23 to tie the overall match up.
 
In the third set, Pepperdine came out strong 5-0 with a powerful service output from Scully and kills from Ahrens.  The Waves continued to pound down on the attack, amassing a 14-7 lead including an ace from Kayla Joyce.  Later in the set, another big service output from Isabel Zelaya put the opposition on their heels and a Meg Brown smash ended the set 25-15 in the Waves' favor. 
 
The fourth and final set started with another solid serving effort from Joyce, with three aces to boot.  Pepperdine opened the action with a 9-1 lead fueled by kills from Ahrens and Scully in addition to the aces.  SMC rallied back to a six-point deficit at 16-9, but the Waves held on to the lead and a block from Scully and Brown put the momentum in Pepperdine's corner close to the end of the action.  Three Waves kills closed the set with Scully, Brown and Ahrens all getting in on the action for a 25-12 final set win and the four-set match victory.
 
NEXT UP
Next week's matches at Santa Clara have been postponed due to issues relating to COVID-19 for the Broncos.  The Waves will be back in Firestone Fieldhouse the following week for a pair of matches against Pacific on February 16 and 17.   The match will be live streamed and have live stats available on www.PepperdineWaves.com.
 
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.