SEATTLE, Wash. — After splitting sets en route to the Pepperdine women's volleyball team's first five-set match of the season, the #24 Waves came back from an 11-5 deficit in the final set to overcome Cal Poly 17-15 and open the Husky Invitational on a 3-2 win. 
 
The victory advances the Waves to 6-1 overall this season and marks the 900^th success in Pepperdine women's volleyball program history. 
 
After splitting the first four sets 25-22, 22-25, 25-17 and 23-25, the Waves entered a fifth set for the first time this season.  Though Cal Poly had the edge in the beginning, building as much as an 11-5 lead to open, Pepperdine had no quit and a kill from Grace Chillingworth followed by a Chillingworth, Meg Brown block collaboration started to flip the script.
 
The Waves kept pounding down with kill from Rosemary Archer, followed by a block from Brown and Archer and Chillingworth's fifth ace of the match to tie the set at 12-apiece.  Each side exchanged points at that point, with Pepperdine earning the first match-point opportunity at 14-13 with a block from Ahrens and Brown.  Though the opposition countered on two counts, the Waves were able to secure the impressive win with a Brown smash and the capitalization of a few Mustangs' errors.
 
Three Waves hit for double-figure kills, led by Brown with 15 smashes on a .400 clip.  As a team, the squad posted 18.0 blocks, ranking tied for 6^th in the Pepperdine women's volleyball record books for most blocks in a single-match during the rally scoring era.  The Malibu Roofing Company was led by Brown and Vanessa Polk with seven and six blocks respectively, while Chillingworth, Rachel Ahrens and Kenadie Patterson had five-apiece.
 
Pepperdine will continue tomorrow against #13-ranked tournament-host Washington at 11 a.m. and undefeated Northwestern at 5 p.m.
 
BIG WAVES
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 15 kills, 400 hitting %, 7 blocks (2 solos), 5 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 11 kills, 5 aces, 8 digs, 5 blocks
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 12 kills, 1 block
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 41 assists, 2 kills, 2 blocks, 1 ace
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 5 kills, 5 blocks, 8 digs, 1 ace
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 6 blocks (1 solo), 3 kills
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 16 digs, 4 assists
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 11 digs
Kenadie Patterson (Oakdale, Calif./Gregori HS): 6 kills, .500 hitting %, 5 blocks
 
WAVES VS. MUSTANGS
Though Cal Poly led the match with 62 kills to Pepperdine's 58, the Waves led with a .199 hitting percentage compared to a .165 across the net.  The Waves also dominated at the net with 18.0 blocks, while allowing 12.0 blocks to the foes across the net.  The squad also led eight to four in aces throughout the match.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          17        3          34        .412
2          12        8          44        .091
3          9          3          24        .250
4          11        6          36        .139
5          9          5          28        .143
TTL      58        25        166      .199
 
CAL POLY ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          14        4          32        .312
2          16        8          47        .170
3          10        7          28        .107
4          14        8          41        .146
5          8          7          22        .045
TTL      62        34        170      .165
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Pepperdine and Cal Poly each came out swinging in the first set, working towards a 10-10 tie before the Waves started to pull away with kills from Grace Chillingworth and Emily Hellmuth.  The Mustangs attempted to come back and came within one-point at the 18-17 mark, but an ace from Rachel Ahrens and a block from Isabel Zelaya and Meg Brown kept the Waves moving forward towards a 21-17 lead.  Ahrens went back-to-back on the attack late in the set and the squad capitalized on a service error from across the net to take set one 25-22.
 
Though the Waves had the early edge in the second set, Cal Poly started to pull away in the middle of the set, amassing a 15-10 lead.  Pepperdine rallied to come within two-points at the 22-20 mark, but the Mustangs finished the set off with a couple attack errors to make it 25-22 and tie the match.
 
Pepperdine was not messing around in the third set, however, and four consecutive aces from Chillingworth extended the Waves lead to 7-2.  Though Cal Poly closed the gap marginally, kills from Avery Shimaitis and Kenadie Patterson, followed by a big Chillingworth, Brown block collaboration found Pepperdine at a 17-11 lead.  The Waves kept building on the lead and a pair of K. Patterson's blocks alongside either Shimaitis or Hellmuth helped the cause en route to a 25-17 set win.
 
Cal Poly would not go quietly into that good night, however.  After each team battled through 4-4, 12-12 and 21-21 tied scores, the Mustangs put in a few points to tie the overall with a 25-23 set win to force a fifth.
 
Despite the 11-5 deficit to open, the Waves buckled down to win the set 17-15 and secure the win in the season's first five-set match.
 
UP NEXT
Tomorrow, the #24 Waves will challenge tournament-host and #13-ranked Washington at 11 a.m. before facing Northwestern to close out the Husky Invitational at 5 p.m.
 
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.