MALIBU, Calif. —   The #10 Pepperdine men's volleyball team will hit the road for the first away match of the season, trekking to #3 Long Beach State.

MATCH #7 — Friday (January 26) at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.: #10 Pepperdine (6-0) vs. #3 Long Beach State (5-0) at 7 p.m. PT.

COVERAGE — The match on Friday will stream live on ESPN+.  Live scoring will be available for all matches.  Links can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.

UP NEXT — The Waves will stay on the road after the Long Beach trip, heading to the East to take on Princeton and FDU on February 2 and 3 respectively. 

FOLLOW — Follow the Waves on Facebook and X, @PeppVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram and TikTok, @peppmvb.  Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.

A SOLID START — Pepperdine won the first six matches of the campaign, including four by way of sweep.  The last time the Waves won six or more games to open a season was in 2009 when the squad won seven-consecutive matches from January 9 through February 11 under Pepperdine's legendary head coach Marv Dunphy.  This season marks the eighth season in the program's 53 years that a team has won six or more matches to start the campaign.  The best-ever open occurred during the 1992 NCAA Championship-winning season when the Waves won 14-consecutive matches to begin the year.

RANKINGS — Pepperdine remained in the #10 spot on the AVCA national poll for the second-consecutive week.  The Waves began the season at #13 and moved up each of the first two weeks of action.  In addition to the team ranking, the Waves have been making quite the splash on the team and individual stat rankings in this early season.  Pepperdine ranks top-11 nationally and first or second in the MPSF in seven statistical categories.  The Waves rank second nationally in assists (12.40), third in hitting percentage (.387), kills (12.85) and opponent hitting percentage (.071), fourth in digs (10.30), ninth in blocks (2.65) and 11th in aces (2.00).

Pepperdine's blockers rank first and fourth in the MPSF in blocks, with Martin de Chavarria ranking third nationally with 1.61 blocks and Andersen Fuller ranking fourth in the league with 1.19 blocks.  Trey Cole is fourth nationally, while leading the MPSF, with 3.06 digs.  Closing up the national top-15 stat leaders, Ryan Barnett ranks 14th nationally and third in the MPSF with a .416 hitting percentage.

DIG THIS — Senior libero Trey Cole impressed with a career-high 19 digs in Pepperdine's match against McKendree (Jan. 19), tying the Pepperdine single-match program record in the rally scoring era.  Two other Waves in program history have achieved the feat in this era, Brennan Anderson against UC Santa Barbara (Jan. 3, 2015) and James Ka against USC (March 17, 2005), and both did so in four-set matches as well.  The sideout era program record is 112 digs by Matt Rigg against Penn State in the NCAA semifinal match (May 2, 1986) – and the Waves went on to win the NCAA Championship in the following match. 

LAST WEEK — Pepperdine won a pair of matches against McKendree, a team receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll, last week.  In the first match on Friday, the Waves won the first two sets 25-17, 25-20, before the opposition was able to take one 25-22.  Pepperdine buckled down in the fourth and came away with the 25-22 set win to secure the match victory.  The squad posted 53 kills on a .355 clip, while adding six aces, 48 digs and 10.0 blocks.  The Bearcats were good for 45 kills on a .229 output, adding five aces, 36 digs and 8.0 blocks.

Trey Cole highlighted the game with an impressive career-high 19 digs, tying Pepperdine's single-season record for most digs in a single-match during the rally scoring era.  Ryan Barnett and Cole Ketrzynski boasted 15 and 13 kills respectively. Barnett did so on a .448 success rate, while Ketrzynski added three aces.  Martin de Chavarria impressively led the Waves with nine blocks, his second nine-block game in as many attempts.  Tyler Stewart took over playmaking duties with 39 assists throughout the match.

In the second matchup, Pepperdine took hold from the beginning and swept past McKendree 25-19, 25-23, 25-23.  The Waves put in 40 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, with 32 digs and 6.0 blocks, while the Bearcats tallied 31 kills on a .148 clip, with one ace, 29 digs and 2.5 blocks.  Ketrzynski led with another double-figure kill match with 10, while Stewart had a team-high 28 assists.  Ilay Haver led the Waves with seven digs, while each Cole and Stewart had six.  At the net, Have, Andersen Fuller and de Chavarria each had three blocks.

SQUAD — The Waves have gone 6-0 to start the campaign this season and have won four of those matches in straight sets.  As a team, Pepperdine produces 12.85 kills on a .387 clip, while adding 12.40 assists, 2.00 aces, 10.30 digs and 2.65 blocks.  The squad gives up only 7.90 kills on a .071 output on average, along with 0.60 aces, 7.30 digs and 1.43 blocks per set. 

Cole Ketrzynski and Ryan Barnett lead the attack output for the Waves with 3.40 and 3.18 kills/set respectively.  Barnett leads the team with 54 kills on a .416 success rate so far this season, while Ketrzynski has posted 51 smashes on a .324 clip.  Martin de Chavarria and Andersen Fuller lead the squad at the net with 1.61 and 1.19 blocks/set respectively.  De Chavarria has produced 29 blocks, with six solo rejections.  Ketrzynski also leads the team with eight aces and 0.53 aces/set so far this season.  Fuller is next in line with six, while Ryan Barnett and Cole Rasic have added five apiece.

Trey Cole has marked a team-best 3.06 digs/set, tallying 55 digs this season.  Tyler Stewart and Ryan Graves have split the playmaking duties, with Stewart putting up 8.83 assists/set and Graves adding 3.81 assists/set. 

OPPONENT — Long Beach State is currently ranked third nationally, having gone 5-0 to open the season with wins against LIU, Saint Francis, Merrimack, George Mason and NJIT.  All-time, Pepperdine has gone 52-47 against Long Beach State, dating back to the first time the teams faced in 1971.  LBSU took the first two contests in 1971 before the Waves won the next two in 1972 and 1973.  Pepperdine went on a 14-4 run from 1972-80.  The Waves are 16-28 when playing at Beach and the opposition has won the last six-consecutive matches since 2016.