LONG BEACH, Calif. – The #10 Pepperdine men's volleyball team faced a tough opponent with #3 Long Beach State on Friday night at Walter Pyramid, with the match ending as the Waves took the first loss of the season, 25-19, 25-13, 25-21.
 
Pepperdine dropped to 6-1 and Long Beach State improved to 6-0 with the win.  Cole Ketrzynski led the Waves with 10 kills, his five double-figure kill match in the Waves' seven matches so far.  Martin de Chavarria led the squad with five blocks, his fourth match with five or more blocks this Spring.
 
BIG WAVES
Cole Ketrzynski (Toronto, Ontario, Canada): 10 kills, 4 digs, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Martin De Chavarria (Palma de Mallorca, Spain): 5 blocks, 3 kills
Andersen Fuller (Manlius, N.Y.): 5 kills, .625 hit %
Tyler Stewart (Broomfield, Colo.): 23 assists, 3 digs
Ilay Haver (Kfar Saba, Israel): 4 kills, 3 digs
Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y.): 5 digs
 
WAVES VS. BEACH
Pepperdine led the match in kills with 30 to Long Beach State's 29, but Beach's .288 success rate outweighed the Waves .105.  An 18-10 service ration deficit impacted the Waves, while LBSU led 7-2 in aces and 15.0 to 5.0 in digs.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          11         6          31        .161
2          6          9          20        -.150
3          13        6          35        .200
TTL      30        21        86        .105
 
LBSU ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          8          3          21        .238
2          8          2          15        .400
3          13        5          30        .267
TTL      29        10        66        .288
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
It was a see-saw battle to open the first set, with a block from Martin de Chavarria and Ryan Barnett putting the Waves at 5-4.  The two teams traded point-for-point en route to 8-8 and 13-13 tied scores.  The opposition then worked ahead to a 19-16 lead after costly service errors plagued the Waves.  Pepperdine and LBSU traded blocks shortly after with de Chavarria and Cole Ketrzynski doing the honors for the Waves, but the home team had the advantage, working for a 25-19 set win.
 
After winning the first set, Long Beach seemed to have the edge to open the second ahead 10-4.  A strong serving presence from the other side of the net pushed the opposition to 22-10 lead late in the action.  A late block from Akin Akinwumi and de Chavarria helped the cause, but LBSU won the set 25-13 to pull ahead 2-0.
 
More rejections from de Chavarria and Ketrzynski got Pepperdine off to a 7-6 lead.  Ketrzynski and Fuller went back-to-back on the attack front to extend the Waves lead to 10-7.  Beach was able to the set with a 3-0 run, before flipping the script and taking a 15-12 lead.  The Waves kept finding kills throughout the set, including a pair from Alex Mrkalj and Cole Rasic, but the home team would prevail in three, winning 25-21 to end the match.
 
UP NEXT
Next week, the Waves will head to the East Coast to take on Princeton and FDU on February 2 and 3 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.