MALIBU, Calif. — Isabel Zelaya led a strong offense for the #23 Pepperdine women's volleyball team on Tuesday night in Firestone Fieldhouse, as the Waves impressed with 45 kills on a .420 success rate to sweep Portland 25-13, 25-23 and 25-16.
The win keeps Pepperdine undefeated at 3-0 in the West Coast Conference and extends the team's current winning streak to five matches. The Waves are now 11-1 overall this season.
Three players hit for double-figures, led by
Rachel Ahrens who marked 14 kills on a .458 clip. She also tabbed 12 digs for her 7
th career double-double and the third of this season.
Grace Chillingworth and
Meg Brown also hit for double-figure kills with 10-apiece, along with two aces for Chillingworth and a .600 hitting percentage for Brown.
BIG WAVES
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 35 assists, 7 digs, 3 blocks, 2 kills
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 14 kills, .458 hitting %, 12 digs, 1 block, 1 ace
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 10 kills, 5 digs, 2 aces
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 10 kills, .600 hitting %, 2 blocks, 1 ace
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 6 kills, .364 hitting %, 1 block
Rosie Ballo (Dana Point, Calif./Dana Hills HS): 3 blocks, 3 kills
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 3 digs, 1 ace, 3 assists
Kayla Joyce (Chico, Calif./Pleasant Valley HS/FRC/CSU Chico): 3 digs, 1 ace
Trinity Stanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint HS): 2 aces, 2 digs
WAVES VS. PILOTS
Pepperdine dominated the floor, posting 45 kills on a .420 collective hitting percentage, while keeping Portland to a low 27 kills on a .192 success rate. The Waves also led eight-six in aces, 34-21 in digs and 5.0-2.0 in blocks throughout the match.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 17 4 30 .433
2 16 3 28 .464
3 12 4 23 .348
TTL 45 11 81 .420
PORTLAND ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 4 3 20 .050
2 15 5 34 .294
3 8 4 24 .167
TTL 27 12 78 .192
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Portland got the first point of the match, but Pepperdine took it from there, pulling ahead 10-2 early with four nearly-consecutive kills from
Rachel Ahrens to help the cause. The lead kept growing with a block collaboration from
Isabel Zelaya and
Rosie Ballo to put the Waves ahead 14-4 and more smashes from
Grace Chillingworth and
Meg Brown would find the home team ahead 23-12 looking. Two kills from Ballo and
Emma Ammerman closed the set 25-13 in the Waves favor.
In the second set, Portland caught a quick early wind and pulled ahead 5-1. Pepperdine was quick to counter with a 4-0 run with kills from Brown Chillingworth, Brown and Ammerman to tie things up. The Waves slowly inched away from that point, courtesy of more smashes from Brown and an Ahrens, Ballo block connection to make it 14-11 down the back stretch. The opposition was able to close the game to one-point at 23-22, but a kill from Ahrens gave the home team an opportunity to close, which the squad was able to do after capitalizing on a service error from across the net, 25-23.
Each side exchanged points to a 4-4 tie in the third set, but Zelaya and Ahrens put down a pair of kills to put the ball rolling. Ammerman and Ballo got in on the attack action after that and Chillingworth put in an ace to make it 14-9 Waves. It would be a lead the Pilots would be unable to overcome, as another ace from
Madison Shields and a kill from Chillingworth put Pepperdine ahead 23-15. A big block from Brown and Zelaya gave the Waves another chance to close the match and a final ace from Chillingworth would do just the trick for a 25-16 final set score.
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.
