Box Score SPOKANE, Wash. — Another remarkable offensive effort from the Pepperdine women's volleyball team trumped Gonzaga in Charlotte Y. Martin Centre on Thursday night, as the Waves collected 25-13, 25-23 and 25-20 set wins en route to a sweep and the program's eighth-consecutive victory.
 
Pepperdine improved to 5-0 in the West Coast Conference and 9-6 overall this season with the win over Gonzaga (3-13, 0-5 WCC).  It's the sixth time during the Waves' current winning streak that the team has won in straight sets.  It was the second-straight match that the Waves fired off at a .321 clip or higher, as the squad also hit for a .356 clip against San Francisco at home last Saturday.
 
Three Waves hit for double-figures, all at a .321 clip or higher, led by Birdie Hendrickson who blasted a tied season-high 14 smashes on a season-best .480 success rate.  Meg Brown had a team-high .526 hitting percentage while producing 12 kills and Grace Chillingworth posted 11 smashes.  It's Chillingworth's 11^th double-figure kill match of the season, while Hendrickson and Brown have amassed seven and five double-figure kill matches respectively.
 
BIG WAVES
Birdie Hendrickson (Rogersville, Mo./Logan-Rogersville HS/Florida): 14 kills, .480 hitting %, 6 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 11 kills, .321 hitting %, 7 digs, 3 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 12 kills, .526 hitting %, 3 blocks (1 solo), 1 ace
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 36 assists, 9 digs
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 11 digs, 8 assists, 1 ace
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 6 kills, 4 blocks (1 solo)
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 5 kills, 2 blocks (1 solo)
 
WAVES VS. BULLDOGS
A dominant Waves' attack helped the cause in Spokane, as Pepperdine finished with 49 kills on an impressive .321 success rate, while allowing only 34 kills on a .124 clip across the net.  The Waves stunned with 16 kills on a .355 output in the first set alone, while keeping the Zags to six kills on a -.030 hitting percentage.  Pepperdine also led 8.0-6.0 in blocks and 43-33 in digs, while Gonzaga led 4-2 in aces throughout the match.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          16        5          31        .355
2          15        7          38        .211
3          18        3          37        .405
TTL      49        15        106      .321
 
GONZAGA ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          6          7          33        -.030
2          13        8          43        .116
3          15        5          37        .270
TTL      34        20        113      .124
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
After exchanging points to open the match, kills from Meg Brown, Vanessa Polk and Birdie Hendrickson pushed the Waves ahead to an 8-5 lead.  A block collaboration from Polk and Emily Hellmuth kept the momentum going and more smashes from the same pair of Waves extended Pepperdine's lead to 14-8.  The squad would not slow down either, going on another 4-0 run courtesy of more kills from Hendrickson and Grace Chillingworth, eventually leading by 10 at the 22-12 mark.  A pair of kills from Hellmuth and Hendrickson, with an attack error from across the net would end the set 25-13 in the Waves' favor.
 
The second set proved to be tighter than the first after the Zags burst out to a 4-0 run to kick things off.  Blocks from Brown and Hellmuth, along with kills from Brown and Chillingworth, tied the score back at 6's.  After a short see-saw battle to 11-all, the Bulldogs found a few points to pull ahead by three.  Pepperdine was able to capitalize on a few Gonzaga errors to tie things yet again and eventually worked to a 19-17 lead with another set of block collaborations from Chillingworth with either Brown or Polk.  Kills from Hellmuth and Chillingworth kept the Waves ahead and a final pair of smashes from Hendrickson closed the set 25-23 and gave the Waves an opportunity to close the match in three.
 
Though the home team built a 10-6 lead to kick off the third set, successful attacks from Chillingworth and Brown, along with an ace from the latter tied the score at 11-apiece.  Three nearly-consecutive kills, with a pair from Polk and one from Chillingworth, fueled a Pepperdine run en route to a 15-11 lead.  A pair of smashes from Hendrickson and a solo block from Polk helped the cause and continued the advantage, 18-14.  The Waves kept rolling with an ace from Riley Patterson and a pair of kills from Brown and Hendrickson to end the set 25-20 and complete the sweep.
 
NEXT UP
On Saturday, the Waves trek over to Oregon for another WCC matchup, facing Portland at 1 p.m. at Chiles Center.
 
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.