LEBANON, Illinois – The #7 Pepperdine men's volleyball team went on the road to pick up a three-set non-conference sweep, 25-18, 25-22, 25-20, at McKendree on Friday night.
The service line proved to be a huge difference between the Waves (8-5) and Bearcats (7-6). Pepperdine had four aces against just five service errors, while McKendree had zero aces and handed out 19 free points.
BIG WAVES
- Sophomore opposite Jacob Steele (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had a team-high 11 kills on .368 hitting (11-4-19). He also had four digs.
- Graduate outside hitter Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) had 10 kills and four digs.
- Graduate opposite Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Stanford) had five kills and a team-high five blocks.
- Graduate middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) had five kills and four blocks.
- Sophomore setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) gave out 24 assists and had team bests of eight digs and two aces.
PLAY BY PLAY
The Waves scored the first two points of the match and never trailed in the first set. Pepperdine built a 10-7 lead after kills by Steele and Wickens. Although McKendree later tied it at 15, the Waves immediately went on a 6-0 run, which included a pair of blocks by Wilmot and Jasper, and an ace by Dvorak. A Wickens kill made it a seven-point lead at 23-16, and it eventually ended on a kill by sophomore middle blocker
Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS).
McKendree took its first lead of the match at 6-5 in the second set and then built a 10-7 lead, though three straight Pepperdine points evened the set back up. Tied at 15, the Waves scored two, followed by two by the Bearcats, then two more by the Waves, and another two by the Bearcats. Tied at 19, Pepperdine finally broke this pattern by scoring three points in a row, one of them coming on a solo block by Jasper. The Waves maintained that lead to the end of the set and would take a 2-0 advantage on a Wickens kill.
The Waves had to overcome another early deficit in set three. The Bearcats jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but Pepperdine eventually tied it at 10 on a Dvorak ace, and went up 11-10 on a hitting error. Tied at 11, Pepperdine ran off four straight points, with Wilmot and Wickens each getting a kill and combining on a block, to take the lead for good. A Jasper service ace later made it 18-15, and back-to-back kills by Jasper put Pepperdine ahead 22-18. The match eventually ended on a Wickens kill.
MATCH STATS
- PEPP hitting: .343 overall (.571 set one, .231 set two, .261 set three)
- MCK hitting: .278 overall (.379 set one, .278 set two, .160 set three)
- Service Aces: PEPP 4, MCK 0
- Digs: PEPP 25, MCK 20
- Blocks: PEPP 7.0, MCK 6.5
- McKendree got a match-high 13 kills from Ethan Carroll.
UP NEXT
The Waves face McKendree again on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT.
