Box Score SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Though the #17 Pepperdine women's volleyball team struck first with a 25-22 set win over #4 San Diego in the Jenny Craig Pavilion on Thursday night, the Toreros were able to collect on 25-19, 25-21 and 25-20 set wins to follow to snag the West Coast Conference victory.
 
Two Waves (9-3, 0-1 WCC) had double-doubles throughout the match against the Toreros (10-1, 1-0 WCC), led by Rachel Ahrens with the 14^th of her career on 14 kills and 13 digs.  Isabel Zelaya also tabbed her 21^st double-double with 45 assists and 10 digs, while Riley Patterson impressed with a career-best 28 digs. 
 
Pepperdine will now head to Provo, Utah to continue league play against #6 BYU on Saturday.
 
BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 14 kills, 13 digs, 1 block
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 45 assists, 10 digs
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 28 digs
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 14 kills, .323 hitting %
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 8 kills, 5 digs, 3 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 10 kills, 4 digs
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 5 blocks, 8 kills, .357 hitting %
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 7 digs
 
WAVES VS. TOREROS
Pepperdine had a slight edge with 58 kills to San Diego's 47, but the Toreros led with a .213 success rate to the Waves .190.  USD was also able to gain momentum with a strong presence at both the net and the service line, leading eight to zero in aces and 11.0 to 7.0 in blocks.  The Waves did outperform the Toreros on the back line with 68 digs, compared to 52.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          16        8          49        .163
2          13        8          29        .172
3          13        7          36        .167
4          16        6          39        .256
TTL      58        29        153      .190
 
SAN DIEGO ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          11        7          45        .089
2          11        4          33        .212
3          13        5          35        .229
4          12        1          28        .393
TTL      47        17        141      .213
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Each side traded points to open the first set, but Vanessa Polk collected on back-to-back kills to put the Waves ahead by three at the 8-5 mark.  Pepperdine kept inching a way with more kills from Polk, Grace Chillingworth and Emily Hellmuth to lead 15-10 at the turn.  Though the opposition was able to come back to tie the set at 22's, another pair of kills from Polk put the squad in a position to close the set.  After a good rally, Polk and Chillingworth collaborated on a huge block at the net to gain the edge heading into the second set after a 25-22 set win.
 
The Toreros would not let the Waves carry that momentum into the second set, however, as the home team started with a 5-0 lead that turned into a 16-7 lead.  Kills from Chillingworth, Isabel Zelaya and Rachel Ahrens found the floor with kills and Polk posted another solo block to start closing the gap to a four-point deficit, 19-15.  Although the Waves started to rally late in the set, USD was able to come away with a 25-19 set win to tie even the match.
 
Each team traded points to open the third set, but USD pulled ahead by two points 10-8 early on.  The lead slowly grew as the set continued despite the Waves collecting on multiple opportunities and the Toreros grabbed another set win, 25-21 to pull ahead 2-1 heading into the fourth set.
 
The fourth set was similar to start as the third with the Waves grabbing the first advantage with a few kills from Meg Brown and Rachel Ahrens for a 13-11 edge.  The opposition started to counter at that point once again though and worked ahead to a 21-17 lead late in the set. It would be a lead the squad would be unable to overcome and the Toreros collected a 25-20 set score to win the match.
 
UP NEXT
On Saturday, the #17 Waves will continue on with WCC action in Provo, Utah, facing #16 BYU at noon.
 
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.