IRVINE, Calif. — The #6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team fell to #7 UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center on Friday night. After splitting the first two sets 20-25, 25-23, the Anteaters collected 25-20 and 25-17 set wins to finish out the match in four.
Though Pepperdine (8-4) had the edge on the attack front with 54 kills to UC Irvine's (9-3) 39, the Anteaters had the advantage 13 to three in aces. The Waves had two players with double-digit digs with
Jaylen Jasper and
Ryan Barnett leading the way with 16 and 12 respectively.
BIG WAVES
Jaylen Jasper (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck Senior HS/Stanford): 16 kills, 7 digs, 1 ace, 3 blocks
Ryan Barnett (Long Island, N.Y./Saint Edward's School): 12 kills, .421 hitting %, 6 digs
Bryce Dvorak (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS): 38 assists, 9 digs, 4 kills
Kevin Roberts (Ocoee, Fla. (Apopka HS): 7 kills, .429 hitting %, 2 blocks, 1 ace
Akin Akinwumi (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Peninsula HS): 7 kills, 2 blocks
Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y./Connetquot HS): 6 digs, 5 blocks
WAVES VS. ANTEATERS
Pepperdine amassed 54 kills on a .266 clip, while UC Irvine tallied 39 kills on a .290 success rate. The opposition had the edge with 14.5 blocks to the Waves' 6.0 blocks. UCI also had an advantage at the service line, putting up 13 aces to the Waves three.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 11 6 24 .208
2 16 4 31 .387
3 15 6 24 .375
4 12 9 30 .100
TTL 54 25 109 .266
UC IRVINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 10 4 20 .300
2 12 3 26 .346
3 8 2 23 .261
4 9 3 24 .250
TTL 39 12 93 .290
PLAY-BY-PLAY
The Anteaters had the first edge in the match, building a 7-3 lead early with an ace and some kills. The opposition eventually used that momentum to take an 18-8 lead before the Waves started to rally with kills from
Jaylen Jasper and
Kevin Roberts. A block from Jasper, Roberts and
Keeton Hanzlik-Green closed the gap to five, 22-17, but the damage was done and UCI won the set 25-20.
Pepperdine came out firing in the following set after the late first set charge and kills from
Ryan Barnett and
Keeton Hanzlik-Green and a block from Hanzlik-Green and Jasper helped the squad to a 4-1 lead early. The Waves maintained a three-point, 11-8, lead before the Anteaters closed the gap with a 3-0 run to tie the score. UCI took a marginal lead shortly after, but it would not be for long as an ace from Jasper and back-to-back kills from Roberts helped tie things up and then push the squad to a 17-15 advantage. It tracked as a see-saw battle throughout the majority of the rest of the set, but Pepperdine earned an opportunity to close at 24-20. UC Irvine battled through three set-point opportunities, but the Waves finished things off 25-23 to tie the overall heading into the third.
Each team went point-for-point through to a 7-7 tie early on, before the Anteaters took a three-point lead off a run. After exchanging points once again, kills from
Bryce Dvorak and Barnett, followed by an
Akin Akinwumi ace, tied the score at 13's. The set moved forward to 18-18, before back-to-back smashes from Akinwumi gave Pepperdine the two-point lead. UCI countered to tie and then finished the set with a six-point run to win 25-20.
After a 6-6 tie in the fourth and eventual final set, the opposition started to pull ahead, working to an 18-10 lead late in the action. It would be an advantage the Waves would be unable to overcome as the Anteaters finished the set 25-17.
UP NEXT
Next week, the Waves hit the road for Palo Alto, taking on Stanford at The Farm on Friday and Saturday, February 17 and 18 at 7 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.
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.
