MALIBU, Calif. — The #20 Pepperdine women's volleyball team returned to Firestone Fieldhouse for the first time in 24 days on Tuesday night, sweeping past Gonzaga for the Waves' first West Coast Conference win of the season.  The squad dominated throughout the majority of the match, marking 25-18, 25-20 and 25-23 set scores to earn the team's third sweep of the 2022 campaign.
 
Meg Brown and Rachel Ahrens led with 12 kills on a .421 hitting percentage and 10 kills on a .389 clip respectively.  Brown, along with Emily Hellmuth, now lead the team in double-figure kill matches with nine-apiece, while Ahrens marked her eighth match of the season with double-digit kills and the 83^rd of her career at Pepperdine.  Riley Patterson also helped the Waves' efforts with 16 digs, her 12^th match of the season in double-digits.
 
Pepperdine advances to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in WCC play with the win.  The Waves now hit the road once again facing matches at San Francisco and Santa Clara to close out the week.
 
BIG WAVES
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 12 kills, .421 hitting %, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 10 kills, .389 hitting %
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 34 assists, 3 digs, 2 blocks, 3 kills
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 16 digs, 1 ace
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 8 kills, 6 digs, 2 blocks, 1 ace
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 8 digs, 2 aces
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 7 kills
Trinity Stanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint HS): 5 digs, 1 ace


 
WAVES VS. BULLDOGS
Pepperdine led the match offensively throughout, posting 43 kills on a .247 clip, while allowing the opposition 26 kills on a .122.  Each side had six aces, and though the opposition led 5.0 to 4.0 in blocks, the Waves led 40 to 27 in digs.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          12        6          25        .240
2          15        7          39        .205
3          16        6          33        .303
TTL      43        19        97        .247
 
GONZAGA ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          4          7          26        -.115
2          9          6          32        .094
3          13        2          32        .344
TTL      26        15        90        .122
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
The energy was high in Firestone Fieldhouse to start the match and each team came to play, working virtually point-for-point en route to an 11-11 tied score before a 6-0 run with kills from Meg Brown put the Waves ahead.  The opposition countered, but Pepperdine had the momentum through the rest of the set, fueled by kills from Emily Hellmuth and Rachel Ahrens and a sound Brown, Isabel Zelaya block collaboration.  An ace from Kayleigh Hames late in the set, followed by kills from Ahrens and Vanessa Polk and multiple errors from across the net helped the home team to a 25-18 first set win.
 
The Waves dominated the open of the second set, blasting away to a 7-0 lead with an ace from Grace Chillingworth and kills from Brown, Zelaya and Hellmuth.  The success continued with more smashes from Brown and Hellmuth as Pepperdine amassed a nine-point lead at the 17-8 mark.  After a 20-13 lead, the opposition went on a small run of their own to come within two-points, but the Waves buckled down with another Brown, Zelaya block to regain control.  A final kill from Brown closed the set 25-20 in the Waves favor.
 
The third set was by far the most exciting of the match with 10 tie scores and three lead changes throughout.  The Zags started with an 11-5 lead, but the Waves pulled it back with a Trinity Stanger ace and a kill from Kenadie Patterson to pull within two, 12-10.  There was some back-and-forth with kills from Ahrens and Zelaya eventually tying the set at 16's.  After a see-saw battle, Gonzaga pulled ahead by two, 22-20, but back-to-back kills from Hellmuth and Brown tied things up.  Hellmuth found the floor on another one to give the Waves the edge, but the Zags countered with a kill of their own to tie things up at 23-23.  A smash from Brown forced a Gonzaga timeout, but Hames came in hot at the service line out of the break, tabbing her second ace of the night to close the set out 25-23 and complete the sweep for Pepperdine.
 
UP NEXT
The Waves aren't done this week, though the squad does hit the road to head up to northern California to continue WCC action against San Francisco and Santa Clara on Thursday and Saturday.  
 
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.