MALIBU, Calif. – The #11 Pepperdine men's volleyball team prevailed with a solid four-set win over LIU in Firestone Fieldhouse on Saturday night.  After splitting the first two sets 25-23, 22-25, the Waves buckled down to dominate the remaining sets 25-14 and 25-16 to secure the non-conference win.
 
Pepperdine advanced to a 3-0 start to the 2024 campaign, while LIU dropped to 0-3. 
 
Cole Ketrzynski and Ryan Barnett led the Waves attack force with 14 and 10 kills respectively, each hitting for double-figure kills for the first time this season.  Barnett also added a season-high four aces to his stat line, while Andersen Fuller added four aces of his own – a career-high for the middle.  Trey Cole picked up his second match of the season, and the 16^th of his career, with double-figure digs after amassing 10 for the home team.
 
Tomorrow, the Waves will continue the home stretch with a 5 p.m. matchup with Lincoln Memorial in Firestone.
 
BIG WAVES
Cole Ketrzynski (Toronto, Ontario, Canada): 14 kills, 4 digs, 3 blocks
Ryan Barnett (Long Island, N.Y.): 10 kills, 4 aces, 5 digs
Martin De Chavarria (Palma de Mallorca, Spain): 7 kills, .385 hitting %, 5 blocks (1 solo), 1 ace
Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y.): 4 kills, 4 aces, 4 blocks (1 solo), 3 digs
Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y.): 10 digs
Tyler Stewart (Broomfield, Colo.): 25 assists, 4 digs, 2 kills
Ryan Graves (Irvine, Calif.): 17 assists
 
WAVES VS. SHARKS
Offensively, Pepperdine outplayed LIU, marking 52 kills on a .248 clip compared to 31 kills on a .121 success rate from across the net.  The Waves also led with 11 aces, while giving up only three to the opposition.  Though the home team had an advantage in the back row with a 42-31 dig differential, LIU had a slight edge at the net with 10.5 blocks to the home squad's 9.0.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          15         7          29        .276
2          11        7          36        .111
3          13        5          24        .333
4          13        5          24        .333
TTL      52        24        113      .248
 
LIU ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          11        3          24        .333
2          10       3          30        .233
3          4          5          21        -.048
4          6          8          24        -.083
TTL      31        19        99        .121

PLAY-BY-PLAY
LIU started with a 3-0 run to open things up, working ahead to a 5-2 lead before Pepperdine would start to close the gap.  A kill, followed by an ace – both from Ryan Barnett – got the Waves back on track and more smashes from Barnett and Cole Ketrzynski closed the opposition's advantage to two-points, 8-6.  Tyler Stewart picked up a kill and Andersen Fuller followed up with an ace to tie the score.  Though the Sharks pulled ahead shortly after, the Waves countered with kills from Barnett and a block collaboration by Ilay Haver and Martin De Chavarria to make it 13-all.  An ace from De Chavarria pushed the Waves ahead and the two teams went point-for-point en route to another tie at the 18-18 mark.  Pepperdine would maintain the advantage throughout the rest of the set, though it would remain marginally close between the two teams.  The Waves led 24-21 and though the opposition battled through two set-point opportunities, a kill from Haver would end the set 25-23.
 
The Sharks once again came out strong in the second set collecting on a 7-2 run to pull ahead by five.  Kills from Barnett and De Chavarria helped the home team start to close the gap, and a pair of back-to-back aces from Barnett brought Pepperdine within one, 9-8.  LIU worked ahead to a four-point lead shortly after, but a block from Stewart and De Chavarria, along with smashes from Haver and Barnett tied things up at 14's.  After some back-and-forth, the opposition took a three-point lead at 20-17 and though the Waves brought the score to a one-point game, the opposition eventually won the set 25-22 to tie the match.
 
The two teams worked to a 7-7 tied score in the third set, before back-to-back smashes from Fuller pushed the Waves into the lead.  A Ketrzynski, De Chavarria block collaboration kept things moving forward and more kills from Ketrzynski forced a LIU timeout and helped Pepperdine a 13-8 advantage.  Another block from Cole Rasic and De Chavarria extended the home team's lead to five-points, 16-11 and kills from De Chavarria and Akin Akinwumi made it 19-14 down the home stretch.  The Waves kept rolling and a block from Fuller and Ketrzynski, followed by back-to-back kills from the latter and Akinwumi extended the advantage to eight, 22-14.  Pepperdine would show no let-up as well, and a pair of aces from Rasic and kill from Fuller would close things out in the next three plays, 25-14.
 
Though the Sharks tagged the first few points of the fourth set, kills from Rasic and a block from Akinwumi and Fuller flipped the script and helped the Waves to a 3-3 tie.  A solo rejection from Fuller followed and a strong service effort from De Chavarria forced multiple errors from across the net en route to a 12-6 Waves' lead.  Pepperdine would continue to pound down on LIU and more smashes from Akinwumi and Ketrzynski extended the squad's lead to 18-12.  Back-to-back kills from Fuller and Ketrzynski, and a block from the same pair, continued on to make it a nine-point spread, 21-12.  Though the Sharks were able to snag a few more points, kills from Barnett and Ketrzynski and a solo block by De Chavarria would end the match with a 25-16 set win.
 
FOLLOW
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