MALIBU, California – The #7 Pepperdine men's volleyball team bounced back nicely on Saturday night, sweeping BYU 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 to split their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation series.
 
The Cougars (8-12, 3-5) posted a five-set win against the Waves (12-7, 3-3) on Friday night but Pepperdine hit .432 in the second meeting and was excellent defensively, outdigging BYU 25-8.
 
BIG WAVES

• Graduate opposite Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Stanford) had a match-high 15 kills on .571 hitting (15-3-21). He had eight digs, which equaled the entire BYU team total. He also had four block assists and two aces.
• Graduate middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) had 10 kills on .571 hitting (10-2-14).
• Sophomore opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) posted 10 kills, three digs, two aces and two block assists.
• Sophomore middle blocker Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) was perfect with a career-high-tying seven kills on seven swings, along with a match-high five block assists.
• Sophomore setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) gave out 42 assists and had three digs and two aces.
• Graduate libero Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) added seven digs.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves couldn't have asked for a better start as Steele had three early kills and Pepperdine took a 5-0 lead in the first set. It didn't last however, as a 7-1 Cougar run put BYU in front 12-9. Trailing 15-12, Pepperdine scored eight consecutive points, with three kills by Jasper and two aces by Steele, putting the Waves back ahead at 20-15. The Cougars got within two points before the Waves closed out the first set.
 
Tied at 12 in the second set, Pepperdine scored three straight points to take the advantage. But, BYU would come back to tie it at 18. After a 19-19 tie, the Waves went on a 4-1 run with kills by Steele and Wilmot and two BYU hitting errors to make it 23-20. A kill by Wilmot and a block by Fuller and Dvorak ended the second set.
 
Set number three was tied at 13 when the Waves scored two straight, with a Wilmot kill making it 15-13. The Waves would lead the rest of the way. Jasper served up back-to-back aces to push the lead to 18-14. BYU got within one point at 19-18, but at 20-19, the Waves went on a match-ending 5-0 run, which included two kills by Jasper, an ace by Dvorak, and back-to-back blocks to wrap things up.
 
MATCH STATS 

• PEPP hitting: .432 overall (.429 set one, .480 set two, .381 set three)
• BYU hitting: .325 overall (.370 set one, .276 set two, .333 set three)
• Service Aces: PEPP 7, BYU 6
• Digs: PEPP 25, BYU 8
• Blocks: PEPP 6.5, BYU 5.0
• BYU got 12 kills from Davide Gardini and 11 from Kupono Browne.

UP NEXT
 
Next week, Pepperdine plays Concordia twice in MPSF play, heading to Irvine on Thursday (March 31) at 7 p.m., and coming back to Malibu on Saturday (April 2) at 6 p.m. Ticket information and COVID-19 entry policies for Firestone Fieldhouse can be found here.