MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The #22 Pepperdine women's volleyball team rallied back late on Friday night against Washington State, a team receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll, closing out the team's final match of the Diet Coke Classic hosted by Minnesota with a five-set victory.
The Waves (8-2) won the first set 25-18 at the Maturi Pavilion, but the Cougars (8-2) were able to take sets two and three 25-17, 31-29 to gain the edge heading into the fourth. Pepperdine rallied back, overcoming a 24-24 tie in the fourth set to force a fifth and dominated the opposition en route to a final 15-6 set win.
In the fifth, WSU collected the first two points, but a hardy pair of kills from
Meg Brown and
Rachel Ahrens tied things up to make sure this set would be as interesting as the beginning of the match had been. After trading points, a pair of kills from
Grace Chillingworth and Ahrens earned Pepperdine a two-point lead 6-4 and forced a Washington State timeout. Kills from Chillingworth, Ahrens and
Emily Hellmuth and a meaningful rejection from Chillingworth and
Vanessa Polk earned the squad a four-point lead at the switch. It would be a lead the opposition would be unable to overcome and a final five-point run from the Waves with three kills from Brown and a block collaboration from Brown and Hellmuth ended the set 15-6 and the match with the five-set win for Pepperdine.
Three Waves had double-doubles throughout the match, with
Isabel Zelaya leading in playmaking duties en route to the 20
th of her career with 55 assists and 14 digs. She also dished out 70 kills to her attack force, with four players in double-digits, on a season-high .301 team clip.
Rachel Ahrens and
Grace Chillingworth also marked double-doubles, the 13
th and 4
th of their respective careers. Ahrens did so with a team and season-high 18 kills, while adding 10 digs and four blocks and Chillingworth did so with 12 kills and digs.
Meg Brown also had another stellar night with 17 kills on a .531 clip, five blocks and two aces, while
Riley Patterson tabbed 17 digs.
BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 18 kills, 10 digs, 4 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 17 kills, .531 hitting %, 6 digs, 5 blocks, 2 aces
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 55 assists, 14 digs, 2 blocks (1 solo), 3 kills (.600 hitting %)
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 12 kills, .294 hitting %, 12 digs, 2 blocks
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 14 kills, 1 block
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 17 digs, 8 assists, 1 ace
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 13 digs
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 5 kills, 3 blocks (1 solo)
WAVES VS. COUGARS
Pepperdine led on the attack with 70 kills on an impressive .301 hitting percentage, while giving up only 66 kills on a .210. The Waves also led 10.0 to 5.0 in blocks and 74 to 69 in digs, while the Cougars led 10 to three in aces.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 19 2 35 .486
2 8 4 32 .125
3 17 7 51 .196
4 14 3 36 .306
5 12 1 22 .500
TTL 70 17 176 .301
WASHINGTON STATE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 12 4 31 .258
2 15 5 27 .370
3 17 10 53 .132
4 18 7 43 .256
5 4 3 22 .045
TTL 66 29 176 .210
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Though the Cougars started the match with a 3-0 run, the Waves quick answered with multiple kills from
Rachel Ahrens to tie things at 4-apiece. The two teams then went point-for-point before Pepperdine started to pull away with another three kills from Ahrens towards a six-point advantage at 14-8.
Emily Hellmuth then found the floor three separate times, followed by more kills from
Meg Brown for a 20-12 advantage down the back stretch of the set. The opposition started to string a few points together towards the end of the set, but back-to-back kills from
Isabel Zelaya and
Grace Chillingworth closed the set in Pepperdine's favor 25-17.
The opposition came out in the second set and worked ahead to a 10-2 lead early on. The Waves started to close the gap, coming within four, 17-13, with a block effort from Brown and Ahrens, but WSU held down the set and ended things 25-17 to tie the overall.
The Waves came out strong in the next set, building as much as a six-point lead at the 13-7 mark during play. Pepperdine maintained the edge shortly after, but Washington State closed the gap at 18's down the back stretch. The opposition then worked ahead to get the first set-point opportunity and though the Waves fought off six set-point chances, the Cougars closed things out 31-29 to gain the 2-1 edge heading into a do-or-die fourth set.
Pepperdine needed to take the fourth to stay alive and after a 4-4 tied score, worked ahead to an 11-6 advantage – fueled by kills from Hellmuth and Brown and a well-placed ace from
Riley Patterson. A few runs for each team eventually had the set tied once again, this time at 16's with the Waves battling to play another set. Kills from Brown, Hellmuth and Ahrens kept the Waves up by one or two points throughout en route to the 21-19 mark. The Cougars were able to close the gap and tie the score at 22's before both teams reached the 24-24 mark. A pair of back-to-back kills from Hellmuth and Brown closed the set in the Waves favor, however, closing the set with a 26-24 victory.
After battling through the beginning of the set, the Waves ran away after the switch, taking the match with a 15-6 final set score.
UP NEXT
The Waves will open up West Coast Conference action on Thursday, September 22 and Saturday, September 24 next week, staying on the road to challenge #8 San Diego and #15 BYU.
FOLLOW
Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @WavesVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @peppvolley. Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on
www.PepperdineWaves.com.
