SANTA BARBARA, California – The #2 Pepperdine men's volleyball team's first road match of the season resulted in a four-set defeat at #11 UC Santa Barbara, 26-24, 25-19, 23-25, 25-15, on Friday evening.
 
The Gauchos (5-3), who ended Pepperdine's season at the 2021 NCAA Championships, swept the two-match season series from the Waves (4-2).
 
BIG WAVES

• Sophomore outside hitter Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had a match-high 17 kills along with four digs.
• Graduate outside hitter Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) posted 15 kills with five digs.
• Graduate opposite Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Stanford) had eight kills, a team-high eight digs and four blocks.
• Graduate middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) notched five kills and five blocks.
• Sophomore setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) gave out 38 assists and had seven digs.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Gauchos jumped out to first-set leads of 10-4 and 13-5. A 3-0 run with two Steele kills got Pepperdine back to 15-10. A 5-0 run with two kills by Wickens made it 18-17. UCSB led 23-21 but the Waves had another 3-0 run to take their first lead at 24-23 on a Steele service ace. But the Gauchos came right back with three straight points of their own to claim the first set.
 
UCSB again had a strong start in the second set, going up 5-1 and 8-2. At 13-7, the Waves had their one good scoring run of the set, getting three straight points, two on kills by Steele, to make it 13-10. But that would be as close as Pepperdine would get as the Gauchos went up 2-0.
 
The Waves turned the tables in the third set by scoring the first three points, with Wilmot involved in two blocks. However, UCSB rallied to take the lead at 7-6. Tied at 13, the Waves went on a 5-1 run that included a kill and solo block by Wickens. But, the Gauchos would tie it again at 19. Tied at 23, the Waves won the set on a UCSB service error followed by a block by Dvorak and Wilmot.
 
Pepperdine was unable to maintain momentum into the fourth set, however. UCSB got out to a 6-2 lead and the Waves never recovered. Pepperdine was within three at 12-9 but UCSB scored 10 of the next 13 points and went on to earn the four-set victory.
 
MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .195 overall (.074 set one, .241 set two, .385 set three, .097 set four)
• UCSB hitting: .296 overall (.281 set one, .500 set two, .154 set three, .400 set four)
• Service Aces: PEPP 1, UCSB 5
• Digs: PEPP 32, UCSB 36
• Blocks: PEPP 9, UCSB 15
• UC Santa Barbara was led by Ryan Wilcox's 15 kills.

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine meets #15 UC Irvine twice next week, with a home match in Malibu on Wednesday (Feb. 9) and a trip to Irvine on Friday (Feb. 11). Both matches will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday's match will be streamed through WaveCasts and Friday's will be on ESPN+.