LOS ANGELES, California – The #8 Pepperdine men's volleyball team won its sixth Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament title on Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion, holding off upset-minded #12 Stanford in five sets, 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 15-12.
The third-seeded Waves (19-9) needed to win the tournament to advance to the NCAA Championships, and did just that to qualify for the national tournament for the 18th time in program history.
For the second time in 10 days, the Waves won the first two sets against the Cardinal (14-14), only to see Stanford come back and claim the next two sets. The fifth-seeded Cardinal had already upset fourth-seeded Grand Canyon and top-seeded UCLA at the tournament, but as they did last week in the regular-season finale, Pepperdine bested Stanford in the fifth set to end the Cardinal's run.
Bryce Dvorak was named Tournament MVP, and he was joined on the all-tournament team by
Alex Gettinger and
Jacob Steele.
The Waves were playing in their third consecutive MPSF final (they won at home in 2019 and lost to BYU in Provo in 2021), and their 12th all-time. Pepperdine is now 6-6 in MPSF championship matches. This was the first time Pepperdine and Stanford met in the final.
BIG WAVES
- Graduate outside hitter Spencer Wickens (Irondequoit, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) had a team-high 16 kills along with seven digs.
- Graduate outside hitter Alex Gettinger (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette HS) posted 15 kills, one off his career high, and eight digs.
- Graduate opposite Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Stanford) posted his second double-double of the season with 14 kills and 10 digs, as well as a team-high five blocks.
- Sophomore middle blocker Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius HS) recorded 10 kills, his second time in both this tournament and in his career with double-figure kills.
- Graduate middle blocker Austin Wilmot (Valley Village, Calif./Crespi Carmelite HS/UC Irvine) had six kills and four blocks.
- Sophomore setter Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) gave out 50 assists and had six digs and three kills.
- Sophomore libero Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y./Connetquot HS) had a match-high 11 digs, his sixth time this season in double-figures, including three of the last four matches.
PLAY BY PLAY
Set number one featured 12 ties and five lead changes, the most in any of the five sets. Tied at 19, the Waves went on a 3-0 run that included two kills from Dvorak and one by Wickens. After a Stanford point, Pepperdine closed out the set with another 3-0 spurt, which featured a block by Wilmot and Dvorak, a Wilmot service ace and a Stanford setting error.
Pepperdine jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and never trailed, although Stanford eventually tied the set at 10. But Pepperdine ran off five straight points, two coming on kills by Jasper, to go up 15-10. A Jasper service ace made the lead six at 17-11. The Cardinal got no closer than three the rest of the way.
Stanford scored the first two points in the third set to take a lead that it would never give up. After hitting .200 and .250 in the first two sets, the Cardinal upped its rate to .407 in the third set and used that to cut the Waves' overall lead to 2-1.
Set number four was also close, with nine ties and three lead changes. Pepperdine's last lead was at 11-10 but Stanford then scored four straight points. The Waves got within one point on eight occasions but couldn't ever tie things up again as the Cardinal evened the match at two sets apiece.
There were five tie scores early in the fifth set, but at 7-7, the Waves finally broke away. After a Stanford service error, a 5-0 run featured a Cardinal attack error, a kill by Fuller, a block by Jasper and Fuller and a kill by Jasper to put Pepperdine ahead at 12-7. Stanford immediately responded with a 4-0 run to cut the lead to one at 12-11. At 13-12, a Wickens kill gave the Waves match point, and it ended on a block by Wilmot and Jasper.
MATCH STATS
- PEPP hitting: .300 overall (.281 set one, .333 set two, .360 set three, .242 set four, .312 set five)
- STAN hitting: .291 overall (.200 set one, .250 set two, .407 set three, .387 set four, .182 set five)
- Service Aces: PEPP 4, STAN 1
- Digs: PEPP 45, STAN 28
- Blocks: PEPP 7.0, STAN 12.0
- Stanford got a match-high 22 kills from Will Rottman.
UP NEXT
The NCAA Championships will be back at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion from May 1-7. The bracket will be revealed on Sunday (April 24), at 10 a.m. PT on NCAA.com.
