#20 Pepperdine Sweeps Santa Clara in Series-Opening Sweep

Box Score SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The #20 Pepperdine women's volleyball team had a successful series-opening night against Santa Clara in the Leavey Center on Friday. The match begins the final West Coast Conference series of the season for the Waves as the team advances to 15-3 overall and 15-2 in the league this season with the 25-21, 26-24, 25-20 victory.

Rachel Ahrens once again led the Waves with 19 kills, while she, Kayleigh Hames, Meg Brown and Rosie Ballo posted three block apiece.

BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 19 kills, .293 hitting %, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 21 assists, 3 digs, 1 block, 2 kills
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 13 digs, 4 assists, 2 aces
Shannon Scully (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS/Utah): 5 kills, 12 digs, 1 ace
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 3 blocks, 4 kills, 2 digs
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 6 kills, .333 hitting %, 4 digs, 3 blocks, 2 assists
Rosie Ballo (Dana Point, Calif./Dana Hills HS): 3 kills .600 hitting %, 3 blocks

WAVES VS. BRONCOS
The Waves led the attack front with 40 kills on a .262 hitting percentage, while the opposition put in 38 kills on a .250 success rate. The Broncos led with eight aces and 39 digs to the Waves five aces and 35 digs. Pepperdine led 8.0 to 7.0 blocks.

PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          14        5          32        .265
2          13        3          30        .333
3          11        2          32        .281
TTL      40        13        103      .262

SANTA CLARA ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          12        6          33        182
2          15        6          39        .231
3          13        6          29        .241
TTL      38        15        92        .250

WONG'S WINS
Head Coach Scott Wong earned his 100^th win last week with the four-set victory over #21 San Diego. He advanced that number to 101 wins tonight with the victory. He has gone 101-69 with a .594 success rate.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
The Waves and Broncos went point-for-point to open the match, reaching a 14-14 tied score before Santa Clara pulled ahead 18-16. Pepperdine rallied quickly, however, recovering the deficit and overcoming to 22-19 with multiple smashes from Rachel Ahrens and a pair of back-to-back blocks from Ahrens – with Meg Brown and a solo job. Another pair of smashes from Ahrens ended the set 25-21 in the Waves' favor.

In the second set, Pepperdine and Santa Clara went point-for-point to start things off again, but the opposition strung some kills together to lead 11-7 in the set early on. That was where the opposition's lead would end, though, as another Ahrens, Alli O'Harra block followed by Ahrens and Kayleigh Hames going back-to-back tied things up. Big kills from Hames and Ahrens and a Madison Shields ace late in the set put the Waves ahead 22-20. Though Pepperdine led 24-22, the opposition was able to put some more points on the board and tie things up. Ahrens and Shannon Scully went back-to-back shortly after to take a 26-24 set win and pull ahead 2-0.

The third set was nearly the Waves from start to finish, though the opposition stayed close through to an 11-11 tie. A solo block from Brown and kills from Ahrens and Rosie Ballo put the Waves ahead and Pepperdine's ability to capitalize on Broncos' errors helped the effort en route to a 22-19 lead. A kill from Scully, followed by a Brown, Hames block collaboration closed things down 25-20 for the 3-0 sweep.

NEXT UP
The final regular season match of the season will be tomorrow against Santa Clara on April 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.

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Players Mentioned

#18 Rachel Ahrens: OH/OPP; 6' 4"; Junior

#9 Rosie Ballo: MB; 6' 4"; Junior

#4 Kayleigh Hames: OH; 6' 0"; Sophomore; HS

#7 Alli O'Harra: MB; 6' 3"; Senior

#10 Shannon Scully: OH; 6' 2"; Senior

#6 Madison Shields: L; 5' 7"; Junior

#2 Isabel Zelaya: S/OPP; 6' 0"; Sophomore

#12 Meg Brown: MB; 6' 3"; Freshman; HS

Players Mentioned

#18 Rachel Ahrens
: 6' 4"; Junior
: OH/OPP

#9 Rosie Ballo
: 6' 4"; Junior
: MB

#4 Kayleigh Hames
: 6' 0"; Sophomore; HS
: OH

#7 Alli O'Harra
: 6' 3"; Senior
: MB

#10 Shannon Scully
: 6' 2"; Senior
: OH

#6 Madison Shields
: 5' 7"; Junior
: L

#2 Isabel Zelaya
: 6' 0"; Sophomore
: S/OPP

#12 Meg Brown
: 6' 3"; Freshman; HS
: MB