MALIBU, California – The #7 Pepperdine men's volleyball team hit .403 and improved to 8-0 in three-set sweeps this season with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-20 victory over visiting CSUN on Wednesday night.
The Waves (10-6) won their fifth straight home match and dropped the Matadors to 5-7 overall. Pepperdine has now beaten CSUN 11 consecutive times.
BIG WAVES
- Graduate outside hitter Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS) made his first start of the season and had 11 kills on .500 hitting (11-2-18) along with three digs and three block assists.
- Sophomore opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) matched Gettinger for the team high with 11 kills, and also had three digs.
- Graduate opposite Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Stanford) contributed nine kills and had match highs of seven digs and two service aces.
- Graduate middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) had five kills on six swings along with a match-high five blocks.
- Sophomore middle blocker Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) had five kills on seven attacks and added three blocks.
- Sophomore setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) handed out 34 assists and had four digs.
- Graduate libero Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) had five digs.
PLAY BY PLAY
The Waves could do no wrong in the first set, scoring the first two points, never trailing, and hitting .615 with 17 kills and just one attack error. A Steele service ace made it 5-1 early. The lead grew to five at 8-3 (on a kill by Gettinger and a block by Wilmot and Gettinger), to six at 10-4 (after a block by Dvorak, Wilmot and Gettinger), to seven at 13-6 (on kills by Gettinger and Steele), to eight at 16-8 (on kills by Fuller and Steele) and nine at 21-12 (on a kill by Gettinger and a CSUN attack error). The Waves eventually closed out the first set on a Steele kill.
CSUN built a 7-4 lead in the second set but it didn't last, as the Waves regained the lead at 8-7 after two kills by Gettinger and a kill and an ace by Jasper. The Matadors' last lead came at 10-9 as the Waves would score the next four points, which included a block by Fuller, an ace by Wilmot and two hitting errors. Pepperdine went up four at 16-12, and although CSUN cut it to one at 17-16, the Waves regained a four-point lead at 20-16 on a Wilmot block. The Waves maintained a lead from there and Fuller put Pepperdine up 2-0 with a set-ending kill.
The third set stayed close for a while. CSUN's last lead came at 13-12, but Pepperdine ran off three straight points on kills by Wilmot and Gettinger and an ace by Jasper. Pepperdine's lead went to three at 17-14 on a block by Wilmot and Dvorak. It became a four-point margin at 19-15 after kills by Dvorak and Steele. At 22-20, the Waves ended the match on a 3-0 run on a Wilmot kill, a CSUN hitting error and a Gettinger kill.
MATCH STATS
- PEPP hitting: .403 overall (.615 set one, .308 set two, .280 set three)
- CSUN hitting: .216 overall (.267 set one, .250 set two, .100 set three)
- Service Aces: PEPP 5, CSUN 2
- Digs: PEPP 26, CSUN 14
- Blocks: PEPP 8.5, CSUN 7.0
- CSUN was led by Kyle Hobus' 11 kills.
UP NEXT
The Waves and Matadors play for a second time in Northridge on Friday (March 18) at 7 p.m.
