MALIBU, Calif. — The #10 Pepperdine men's volleyball team hits the road the week, but will not go far as the Waves trek to #16 CSUN and Concordia Irvine.

MATCH #16 — Wednesday (February 28) at Premier America Credit Union Arena in Northridge, Calif.: #10 Pepperdine (10-5) vs. #16 CSUN (8-6) at 6 p.m. | ESPN+

MATCH #17 — Saturday (March 2) at CU Arena in Irvine, Calif.: #10 Pepperdine (10-5) vs. Concordia Irvine (RV) (5-5) at 7 p.m. | Team1Sports

COVERAGE — The matches this week will be streamed and have live stats available, with Wednesday's matchup streaming on ESPN+.  All home matches will stream on ESPN+ and have live scoring available.  Links can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.

UP NEXT — Next week, the Waves will head east to compete against Belmont Abbey College and North Greenville on Thursday and Friday 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.

LAST WEEK — Pepperdine split the week last week, first handing an upset to then-ranked #6 Stanford 3-1, before succumbing to the same fate the following day.  In the win on Friday, the Waves battled back from a 25-15 first set loss to tie things up with a 25-21 second set victory.  The squad went on to win the next two handily 25-17 and 25-18.  The Waves produced 45 kills on a .392 clip, while giving up 53 kills on a .306 output to the opposition.  Pepperdine led 10-4 in aces, 9.0-2.0 in blocks, while Stanford led 41-31 in digs.  Ryan Barnett and Cole Ketrzynski led with 12 kills apiece.  Barnett tied his career high .667 success rate in the process by producing not a single error in 18 swings.  Ketrzynski did so on a .478 output, while tying the team-high three aces alongside Brendan Read.  Ethan Watson led with seven blocks including three solo rejections, while Trey Cole led with nine digs and Ryan Graves added 30 assists.

In the following match on Saturday, Pepperdine had the first set 25-21, but Stanford countered 25-23 to tie the score.  The Cardinal went on to win narrowly 25-22, 25-23 to split the week.  The Waves led with a season-high 59 kills on a .276 success rate, while the Cardinal was good for 49 kills on a .292.  Each side of the net produced 12.0 blocks, and while the home team led 42-33 in digs, the opposition led 3-1 in aces.  Barnett impressed with a career-best 20 kills - the first time this season someone had reached the mark - and he did so on a .389 hitting percentage.  Ketrzynski added another 10 kills and Cole Rasic tabbed his first career double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs.  Graves led with 30 assists and Cole led with 13 digs.

MPSF WEEKLY NOD — Redshirt-sophomore Ryan Barnett garnered the first MPSF offensive player of the week accolade of his career this week, after leading the Waves to an upset win over #6 Stanford and putting up career numbers in both matches against the Cardinal last week.  This honor marks the first of its kind for Pepperdine this season.

He amassed 12 kills on 18 errorless swings to tie his career-best hitting output with a .667 – a feat that tied the team's best this season (10 kills or more) and that he himself had tabbed earlier this year.  He kept the career numbers going in the following match against the Cardinal, leading the Waves with a career-high 20 kills on a strong .389 success rate.  He also had 20 service attempts throughout the second matchup, posting only two errors.  Overall, Barnett amassed 32 kills on a .481 output, adding 12 digs, four blocks and an ace for 35.0 total points.  He averaged 4.00 kills and 4.38 points per set.

SQUAD — The Waves have gone 10-5 to start the campaign this season and have won seven of those matches in straight sets.  The squad kicked off the first two weeks of MPSF action 1-3 with a win over #6 Stanford.  As a team, Pepperdine produces 12.22 kills on a .317 clip, while adding 11.55 assists, 1.41 aces, 8.80 digs and 2.48 blocks.  The squad gives up only 10.37 kills on a .205 output on average, along with 1.14 aces, 7.86 digs and 1.96 blocks.

Cole Ketrzynski leads the attack output for the Waves with 3.39 kills/set and 149 total kills.  Ryan Barnett has also put in a solid presence on the attack front with 2.37 kills/set and 97 kills, while having the best hitting percentage (.371) for anyone with over 100 attacks this season. 

Ethan Watson and Martin de Chavarria lead the squad at the net with 1.62 and 1.24 blocks/set respectively.  De Chavarria has produced 56 blocks, with eight solo rejections in 45 sets, while Watson has amassed 42 blocks with nine solo jobs in 26 sets played.  Ketrzynski also leads the team with 13 aces and 0.30 aces/set so far this season, while Cole Rasic has reached double-figure ace territory with 10 so far this season (0.23). 

Trey Cole has marked a team-best 2.13 digs/set, tallying 102 digs this season.  Tyler Stewart and Ryan Graves have seen the most time in playmaking duties, having put up 8.26 and 5.90 assists/set respectively.

OPPONENT — CSUN is ranked #16 in the AVCA national poll this week, having gone 8-6 overall this season thus far.  The Matadors most notable wins came against then-ranked #4 Stanford and #11 USC with a four-set and five-set win respectively.  Last week, CSUN fell in five to #15 Lewis in Northridge.  All-time, Pepperdine holds a 65-21 record against CSUN, dating back to the 1978 campaign when the Waves won in straight-sets before going on a 14-match winning streak through 1988.  In recent years since 2013, Pepperdine has been on a 12-match winning streak, with the Waves last loss to the Matadors coming in the first of two matches in 2013.

Concordia Irvine has gone an even 5-5 so far this season.  Last week, the Eagles fell to #5 UC Irvine twice, both in straight sets.  All-time against CUI, Pepperdine has amassed an 11-1 record, dropping the first-ever match to the Eagles last season in a four-set road loss.  The teams first met in 2016 where the Waves won 3-0 before going on 10-match winning streak.  The two teams faced again last year, with Pepperdine handing Concordia Irvine a straight-set sweep in Malibu.

RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #10 in the AVCA national poll this week.  After three-consecutive weeks at #10, the squad had dropped to #12, though a pair of wins against UCSB and an upset dub over #6 Stanford moved the Waves up once more to #10.  The Waves began the season at #13.

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. The Waves rank second in the MPSF in opponent hitting percentage (.205) and team attacks (26.10), and third in kills (12.22), digs (8.80), blocks (2.48) and assists (11.55).  The squad is also top-13 nationally in seven categories, including seventh in blocks, 10th in opponent hitting percentage and 11th in digs and hitting percentage (.317).

Martin de Chavarria is second in the MPSF and ranks fourth nationally with 1.24 blocks. Trey Cole also leads the league and ranks 12th nationally with 2.12 digs.  Cole Ketrzynski ranks nationally in five separate categories, including 25th with 4.03 points and 3.39 kills. He leads the league in attacks (7.50), while Ryan Barnett leads the MPSF and ranks 12th nationally in hitting percentage (.371).