STOCKTON, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team succumbed to a five-set loss to Pacific at Alex G. Spanos Center on Thursday night, putting an end to a winning streak that spanned over two months and reached 17-consecutive matches. 
 
The Waves (18-7, 14-1 WCC) won the first set after a tight 26-24 battle, but the Tigers (18-9, 10-5 WCC) pulled ahead with 25-18 and 25-15 set scores to follow.  Though Pepperdine rallied with a dominating 25-13 fourth set win, the opposition was able to win the fifth and final set 15-12 to hand the 2023 West Coast Conference Champions their first loss against a league opponent this season. 
 
Three Waves hit for double-figures throughout the match, led by a fourth-career double-double from Birdie Hendrickson who amassed 13 kills and 13 digs.  Meg Brown and Grace Chillingworth also hit for double-digits with 11 and 10 kills respectively, and the former tied her season-best block effort with seven rejections including a solo effort. 
 
Isabel Zelaya also posted her sixth double-double of the season and the 31^st of her career with 33 assists and a tied season-best 13 digs.  In addition to the two double-doubles, Riley Patterson and Laine Briggs posted double-digit dig efforts.  Patterson impressed with 19 digs, hitting the double-figure mark for the 19^th time this season and the 45^th time in her career.  Briggs posted her fourth double-figure dig match of her career with 15 digs.
 
BIG WAVES
Birdie Hendrickson (Rogersville, Mo./Logan-Rogersville HS/Florida): 13 kills, 13 digs, 1 block
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 10 kills, 9 digs, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 33 assists, 13 digs, 3 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 11 kills, 7 digs, 7 blocks (1 solo)
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 19 digs, 8 assist, 1 ace
Laine Briggs (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS): 15 digs, 1 ace
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 5 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 5 kills, 1 block
 
WAVES VS. TIGERS
The opposition had the edge throughout the match, leading 12.0 blocks to the Waves 9.0 and a 9-4 ace ratio.  Though the other categories were marginally closer as the Tigers led with kills on a .190 clip compared to the Waves' 52 kills on a .176 output.  Pacific also posted 84 digs to Pepperdine's 80.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          24        5          47        .191
2          11        4          36        .194
3          9          6          39        .077
4          10        3          24        .292
5          8          4          24        .167
TTL      52        22        170      .176
 
PACIFIC ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          12        6          44        .136
2          18        2          41        .390
3          13        4          44        .273
4          8          11        33        -.091
5          9          3          28        .214
TTL      60        26        179      .190
 
NOTABLES

• This is the first time Pepperdine has lost since September 8 and the first time the team lost a set since October 19.
• The Waves had a 17-match winning streak this season from September 10-November 11, which tied the second-best streak in Pepperdine program-history.  It's the third time in history the Waves had achieved the feat – 25-consecutive wins (2003), 17-straight (2002).
• Pepperdine has only dropped six sets to WCC opponents this season, having gone 44-6 in sets this season thus far.
• The last time the Waves had an eight-match streak or higher was in 2011 when the program started off WCC play with 13-straight wins.  Pepperdine has had a streak of 13-wins or more on eight occasions throughout history, including this season.
• Twelve of the Waves 14 conference wins this season were done in straight sets.
• Isabel Zelaya ranks second in career assists in the Pepperdine women's volleyball all-time record books, and first in career assists during the rally scoring era.  After today's match, she has amassed 4,843 assists.  The program record is held by Becca Roehl with 5,020 assists from 1994-97.

PLAY-BY-PLAY
The first set would prove to be a battle for the Waves.  The Tigers started with a 4-2 lead before kills from Grace Chillingworth and Meg Brown helped the Waves to a two-point switch, 6-4. More smashes from Birdie Hendrickson and some errors from across the net pushed Pepperdine to a 11-8 lead, but the home team stayed close behind, coming to a one-point deficit at 15-14.  The score reached 17's, which quickly turned to 19-even, where an ace from across the net would put Pacific ahead by on, 20-19.  Chillingworth countered with a kill and Riley Patterson put down an ace to lead once again, but the Tigers were able to string a few points together for a 23-22 advantage. Back-to-back kills from Chillingworth and Brown tied things up and gave the Waves an opportunity to close.  The Tigers battled through that set-point option, but an error from across the net and a Hendrickson smash would shut the set down 26-24 in favor of Pepperdine.
 
Though the Waves worked ahead to a 9-5 lead quickly, fueled by kills from Chillingworth, Brown and Hendrickson, the Tigers eventually countered to tie the score at 12-apiece.  After going point-for-point to a 16-16 tied score, the opposition started to pull away and eventually took the set 25-18 to tie the overall match score.
 
The third set would fare much better for Pepperdine and despite a 5-5 tied score to start, Pacific would start inching away to a 12-8 lead.  The Tigers continued on to a 12-point lead at the 22-10 mark and used the advantage to win the set 25-15 to pull ahead 2-1 overall.
 
The fourth set was looking to be favoring Pacific as the Tigers had an 8-6 lead early, but kills from Chillingworth and Polk tied the set at 8's.  It was then the Waves started to pull away, however, building on more kills from Hendrickson and Polk, 13-10.  Shortly after, more kills from Chillingworth and multiple errors from across the net put the squad on a 4-0 run for a 17-10 lead.  Late in the set, the opposition had collected a few points, but a solo block Brown and kills from Brown and Hendrickson put the Waves up, 24-13.  A final block from Isabel Zelaya and Brown won the set 25-13 to force a fifth.
 
Pacific opened the fifth set with a 5-0 run and though Pepperdine rallied to come within one, 6-5, it would be a deficit the Waves would be unable to overcome. The squad was still two points away at the 12-10 mark, and the Tigers eventually reached match-point, 14-10.  Pepperdine was able to fend off a few opportunities to reach 14-12, but a final kill from across the net would end the match.
 
NEXT UP
On Saturday, the Waves will take on San Francisco at War Memorial Gym at the Sobrato Center at 1 p.m.  The final regular season matchup of the season will take place on Monday at SMU at 5 p.m. PT.
 
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.