NORTHRIDGE, California – The #7 Pepperdine men's volleyball team hit .586, a school record in the rally-scoring era, and routed CSUN, 25-13, 25-8, 25-21, on Friday night in the Waves' non-conference finale.
The victory improved Pepperdine's record to 11-6 and ended some recent frustration that saw the Waves split their previous four two-match series. Pepperdine also beat CSUN (5-8) in three sets at home on Wednesday and has now defeated the Matadors 12 consecutive times.
The Waves' previous best in the rally-scoring era was .561 against Rutgers-Newark in 2007. In the sideout-scoring era, Pepperdine hit .597 against UC Santa Barbara in 1985.
BIG WAVES
- Graduate outside hitter Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS) had a match-high 13 kills and hit a career-best .800 (13-1-15). He also had four digs and an ace.
- Graduate opposite Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Stanford) had 10 kills on an errorless 14 swings, good for a season-best .714 hitting percentage. He also had six digs.
- Sophomore opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) added nine kills.
- Sophomore setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) handed out 29 assists and had four digs and an ace.
- Graduate libero Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) nearly had more digs (eight) than the entire CSUN team (nine).
PLAY BY PLAY
An early 5-0 run that included kills by Gettinger and Steele helped the Waves out to an 8-2 lead in the first set. Pepperdine went up by eight at 11-3 on a block by Jasper and graduate middle blocker
Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine). The lead went to 11 at 16-5 after a CSUN attack error and a kill by Gettinger. Pepperdine went up by 12 at 20-8 after a solo block by sophomore middle blocker
Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS). The set eventually ended on a Matador attack error. The Waves had nine kills and just one error in the first set, while the Matadors had eight and 10, respectively.
The second set was even more lopsided as Pepperdine had 12 kills and one error, while CSUN posted four kills and eight errors. Steele had kills on the first two points and a Fuller kill later made it 6-0. A Gettinger kill increased the lead to 11-1. A Jasper kill later made it 16-4. A kill by Dvorak pushed the lead to 20-5. Gettinger ended the set with a kill. CSUN's eight points were a season low by a Pepperdine opponent in a set.
CSUN made the Waves work in the third set, however. There were a total of 10 ties, the last one coming at 12-12. Pepperdine went up two at 14-12 after a CSUN hitting error. It became a three-point lead at 18-15 after another attack error, and four points at 20-16 after kills by Steele and Jasper. The Waves closed it out from there and ended the match after just an hour and 10 minutes on a Gettinger kill.
MATCH STATS
- PEPP hitting: .586 overall (.533 set one, .647 set two, .577 set three)
- CSUN hitting: .053 overall (-.065 set one, -.167 set two, .476 set three)
- Service Aces: PEPP 2, CSUN 0
- Digs: PEPP 23, CSUN 9
- Blocks: PEPP 5.0, CSUN 3.0
- CSUN was led by Kyle Hobus' seven kills.
UP NEXT
The Waves return to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play and have six of their final eight regular-season matches at home, beginning with a pair against BYU next Friday and Saturday (March 25-26). Both matches will be at 6 p.m. and will be streamed via WaveCasts.
