MALIBU, Calif. — The #5 Pepperdine men's volleyball team returns to California this week, hosting #15 UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday before heading up the coast for the Gauchos to return the favor and host on Friday. 
 
MATCH #9 — Wednesday (February 1) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: #5 Pepperdine (7-1) vs. #15 UC Santa Barbara (1-6) at 7 p.m.
 
MATCH #10 — Friday (February 3) at Robertson Gymnasium in Santa Barbara, Calif.: #5 Pepperdine (7-1) vs. #15 UC Santa Barbara (1-6) at 7 p.m.
 
COVERAGE — The match at Pepperdine will have live stream available on the WCC Network and live stats available.  The match at UCSB will stream live on ESPN+ with live stats also available.  Links to broadcasts and live stats can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.
 
FOLLOW — Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @PeppVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @peppmvb.  Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.
 
UP NEXT — On February 8 and 10, the Waves will flip-flop once again, hosting UC Irvine before making the short trip to the Anteaters' house for a second matchup.
 
LAST WEEK — The Waves won a pair of matches in Fairfax, Va. last week, taking the Uvaldo Acosta Memorial Tournament title after taking down NJIT in four and sweeping past tournament host George Mason.  In the first match against the Highlanders, the Waves posted 46 kills on a .237, with 11 aces, 9.0 blocks and 29 digs, while giving up 44 kills on a .284, with five aces, 11.5 blocks and 22 digs.  Jaylen Jasper led the squad with 19 kills on a .353, while Bryce Dvorak and Akin Akinwumi had a team-high four aces apiece.  Dvorak also added 38 assists and Akinwumi put in a team-best seven blocks with one solo.  Trey Cole posted double figure digs with 11.
 
In the sweep over the Patriots, Pepperdine picked up 38 kills on a season-high .538, marking seven aces, 10.0 blocks and 23 digs in the process.  The opposition amassed 28 kills on a .113 with three aces, 19 digs and 4.0 blocks.  Jasper led the team again with 11 kills on a season-high .647 hitting percentage.  Andersen Fuller produced five blocks with one solo rejection for the Waves and Dvorak led again with 30 assists.  Jacob Steele, Joe Deluzio and Jasper each tallied two aces.   Cole led with double figure digs as well with 10.
 
MPSF WEEKLY ACCLAIM — For the third-straight week, a Pepperdine player earned MPSF offensive weekly honors, as Jaylen Jasper garnered back-to-back nods the last two weeks.  Bryce Dvorak tabbed the recognition the week prior as well.  The honor is Jasper's third since he's been at Pepperdine, though he also garnered three weekly awards of its kind when playing at Stanford from 2018-20.
 
Last week, Jasper had another solid offensive output, helping the squad to a pair of road wins against NJIT and George Mason.  Throughout seven sets, he averaged 4.29 kills and 5.29 points/set.  He marked double figure kills in both matches, hitting a .451 overall, while adding three aces, six blocks including two solo rejections and eight digs.  He highlighted the weekend with a season-high .647 hitting percentage after tabbing 11 kills on 17 errorless swings against George Mason.  He also produced a pair of aces, digs and solo blocks during the sweep.  Against NJIT, he marked a big 19 kills on a .353 success rate, tallying an ace, six digs and four blocks throughout the process as well.
 
This season, Bryce Dvorak (1/16) and Jaylen Jasper (1/23, 1/30) have tabbed offensive weekly nods.
 
WAVES IMPRESS IN THE STAT RANKINGS — After four weeks of action, the Waves lead the nation with 13.70 kills/set and 12.93 assists/set, while ranking third with .389 hitting percentage and fourth in service aces (2.48).  Jaylen Jasper leads the national in kills (5.00), while ranking second in points (5.67) sixth in attacks (8.50) and 10th in hitting percentage (.434).  Bryce Dvorak also ranks first in assists/set (11.31) and 11th in aces (0.62) and Trey Cole ranks 9th in digs/set (2.46). 
 
OPPONENTS — UCSB has gone 1-6 this season, winning one match against USC for the first match of the season.  The Gauchos have since gone on a six-match losing streak, falling to UCLA and Stanford twice, USC once and Lincoln Memorial once.  All-time, the Waves have gone 72-40 against the Gauchos, dating back to 1971 when the opposition won four-straight to 1973.  Pepperdine went on a 10-match streak from 2006-10, while in recent years UCSB has won five-consecutive matches from 2020 to 2022.
 
RANKINGS — After the first four weeks of competition, Pepperdine remained at the #5 spot in the AVCA national rankings.  The Waves opened the 2023 season on January 3 at #5 in the AVCA national rankings as well. 
 
Pepperdine, along with Long Beach State and UCLA, are the only three schools to have been ranked in the top-15 of every single national poll since the polls began in 1986.  Hawai'i is the next closest, having been ranked 554 total times.  Pepperdine is second on the list for school ranked most in the top-five with 358 top-five rankings, while UCLA tops the list with 394 top-five rankings.