#20 Pepperdine Rallies Towards 3-1 Road Win over #21 San Diego

Friday, March 26

San Diego, Calif.

2:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

14-2,14-1WCC

San Diego

11-4,11-4WCC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Pepperdine	19	25	25	25	3
San Diego	25	20	23	21	1

Photo by: Ed Chan/VolleyballMag.com

#20 Pepperdine Rallies Towards 3-1 Road Win over #21 San Diego

3/26/2021 5:41:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

By: by Athletic Communications

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — After dropping the first set 25-19 to #21 San Diego, the #20 Pepperdine women's volleyball team rallied back with 25-20, 25-23 and 25-21 set wins in Jenny Craig Pavilion on Friday afternoon to secure the West Coast Conference victory.

Rachel Ahrens led with 20 kills and two aces, while Shannon Scully marked her 37^th career double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs. The Waves advanced to 14-2 overall and 14-1 in the West Coast Conference, while San Diego falls to 11-4 overall and in the league. The Waves and Toreros will battle it out again tomorrow, March 27 at 2 p.m. in San Diego.

BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 20 kills, 2 aces, 2 blocks (1 solo)
Shannon Scully (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS/Utah): 12 kills 10 digs, 1 ace
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 12 kills, .391 hitting %
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 47 assists, 6 digs, 2 kills
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 11 digs
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 7 kills, 3 digs
Kayla Joyce (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS/FRC/CSU Chico): 8 digs, 1 ace
Alli O'Harra (Boise, Idaho/Centennial HS): 5 kills, 1 ace, 1 block

WAVES VS. TOREROS
Though Pepperdine led with 58 kills to San Diego's 50, the Toreros led with a .301 hitting percentage as opposed to the Waves' .248 output. The Waves added a match-high six aces and 45 digs to the Toreros four aces and 40 digs, while USD led with 10.0 blocks to Pepperdine's 2.0 blocks.

PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          13        7          35        .171
2          17        5          37        .324
3          13        7          29        .207
4          15        5          36        .278
TTL      58        24        137      .248

SAN DIEGO ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          14        1          26        .500
2          12        3          29        .310
3          12        4          32        .250
4          12        5          36        .194
TTL      50        13        123      .301

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Though the Waves pulled ahead 12-10 to start the first set, the Toreros were able to close the gap and pull ahead towards the end. Despite a few comeback attempts from Pepperdine in the set, USD was able to put the set away 25-19 to gain the early advantage.

That would be just the push the Waves needed, however, and a .324 hitting percentage with 17 smashes in the second set helped the cause. After falling behind 5-3 to kick things off, a big service output from Alli O'Harra including an ace and kills from Shannon Scully, the Waves were able to pull ahead 8-6. Multiple kills from Rachel Ahrens later in the set pushed Pepperdine to an 18-14 lead. Emma Ammerman found the floor to help her team as well and a solo block and kill from Ahrens made it 24-18. Though the opposition collected a few more points, a bad set gave the Waves a 25-20 set win to tie the overall.

In the third set, each side exchanged lots of back-and-forth to open, though after a 7-7 tied score Pepperdine was able to gain the slight edge with kills from Ahrens and Isabel Zelaya. A solid attack output, featuring more smashes from Ahrens and Scully advanced the Waves' lead to 18-12. USD countered the attack presence with one of their own to come within one point at 18-17, but a Kayla Joyce ace followed by kills from Scully, Brown and Ahrens put the set away 25-23.

With the 2-1 lead, Pepperdine would look to secure the victory while the opposition would look to force a fifth set. After trading points with the Toreros yet again to start the set en route to a 9-9 tied score, the Waves put down kills from O'Harra and Ahrens to make it a 12-9 advantage. San Diego once again rallied to tie things up at 15's and even pull ahead 18-16 before the Waves would tie it back up with back-to-back Scully and Brown smashes. Another pair of smashes from the same duo put the Waves ahead and a Malibu Roofing Company effort from O'Harra and Ahrens put Pepperdine in a position to close the match. Ahrens would deliver the final blow, finding the floor for a 25-21 set win and the 3-1 league victory.

NEXT UP
Tomorrow, the Waves will face off with the Toreros once again in Jenny Craig Pavilion at 2 p.m. Next week, Pepperdine will make up a pair of postponed matches with Santa Clara on April 2 and 3 on the road.   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.