PROVO, Utah – Back in action for the first time in nearly a month, the #5 Pepperdine men's volleyball team knocked off the rust and defeated Stanford in four sets (25-22, 21-25, 25-22, 25-19) in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament on Thursday night.
 
The third-seeded Waves (12-5) will face UCLA in the MPSF semifinals on Friday. This may have been the final match ever for Stanford (3-14), as the school previously announced that it would eliminate the sport at the end of the season.
 
BIG WAVES

• Senior outside hitter Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) had 14 kills and nine digs.
• Sophomore opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had 14 kills, six digs and four blocks.
• Senior middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) notched 12 kills on a career-high .647 hitting (12-1-17), plus a team-high five blocks.
• Senior outside hitter Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS) recorded eight kills on .412 hitting along with six digs.
• Freshman middle blocker Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) had seven kills on .462 hitting.
• Freshman setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) handed out 47 assists and had nine digs.

MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .339 overall (.385 set one, .172 set two, .333 set three, .500 set four)
• STAN hitting: .291 overall (.308 set one, .406 set two, .241 set three, .200 set four)
• Service Aces: PEPP 2, STAN 0
• Digs: PEPP 34, STAN 28
• Blocks: PEPP 6.0, STAN 5.0
• Stanford was led by Will Rottman's 24 kills on .500 hitting.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
Tied at 13 in set one, the Waves went ahead for good after back-to-back Cardinal attack errors. The lead grew to three at 17-14 on a Wilmot kill and to four at 20-16 on another Stanford attack error. It eventually ended on a Dvorak kill.
 
Stanford turned things around in set two and jumped out to a 10-7 lead. The Cardinal went up by as many as five points, first at 18-13, and the Waves didn't have a comeback in them as Stanford evened the match.
 
Pepperdine helped itself in set three by getting off to a great start, scoring the first three points and going up 7-2 after a kill by Wickens and a Stanford attack error. The Waves kept a five-point lead for a stretch, through Stanford closed the gap and eventually tied the set at 18 and then 19. A Wickens kill and a Stanford hitting error put Pepperdine back in front 21-19. At 23-22, Stanford had a service error and Dyer ended the set with a kill.
 
Another strong start in set four put the Waves on the path to factory. A kill by Wickens followed by a pair of blocks involving Wilmot and Dvorak made it 3-0. A service by Dvorak – the first of the match for either team – made it 6-1. Pepperdine went up by six at 13-7 after a Stanford hitting error. The Cardinal got no closer than three points the rest of the way. At 21-18, the Waves ended the match on a 4-1 run, including kills by Dyer and Wickens and match-ending block by Steele.
 
QUOTABLE
 
Pepperdine Coach David Hunt said: "(During the pause) we tried to practice hard and replicate a match's intensity. There some jitters for the first playoff match for a lot of our guys, but it was good. Our focus was trying to beat Stanford, we knew that was going to be hard. Now we will focus on UCLA, and they're good. We're just glad that with everything that's happened this past year we're at this place and we made it here."
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine moves on to face second-seeded and sixth-ranked UCLA in the semifinals on Friday (April 23) at 4 p.m. MT/3 p.m. PT. The match will be shown online via FloVolleyball.