NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – The #10 Pepperdine men's volleyball team was pushed to the limit in The Matadome on Wednesday night against #16 CSUN, but the Waves prevailed with a gritty five-set non-conference victory.
 
The Waves (11-5) and Matadors (8-7) split the first two sets 25-19, 20-25, but Pepperdine picked up the next advantage with a 25-22 third set win.  The opposition was able to force a fifth set with a 25-17 fourth, but the Waves were ready.
 
Though CSUN tabbed the first few points, a pair of kills from Cole Ketrzynski started moving Pepperdine forward.  A smash from Alex Mrkalj, followed by a Joe Deluzio ace tied the score at 5's.  It would be a see-saw battle towards an 8-8 tie when the opposition collected on a pair of kills to pull ahead by two.  After capitalizing on a service error from across the net, Ketrzynski found the floor to knot things up at 10-apiece. 
 
Another back-and-forth, but the Malibu Roofing Company came up big courtesy of Ryan Barnett and Martin de Chavarria to put Pepperdine ahead 12-11.  It would be the edge the Waves would need as another one-two punch from Ketrzynski and Barnett put the squad in position to win, 14-11.  The Matadors collected on one more kill, but turned around and sent the final serve of the match into the net to end things 15-12 in favor of the Waves.  
 
Eight Waves tallied at least a kill, while five had seven or more throughout the match.  Ketrzynski and Cole Rasic led Pepperdine with 13 and 12 kills respectively, tabbing their 13^th and third matches of the season in double-figures.  Trey Cole was instrumental on the back line, amassing a solid 12 digs, marking his fifth match of the season and the 19^th of his career in double-digit dig territory. 
 
BIG WAVES
Cole Ketrzynski (Toronto, Ontario, Canada): 13 kills, 4 digs
Cole Rasic (Huntington Beach, Calif.): 12 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks
Ryan Barnett (Long Island, N.Y.): 8 kills, 6 digs, 6 blocks
Martin De Chavarria (Palma de Mallorca, Spain): 7 kills, .636 hitting %, 5 blocks
Ethan Watson (Sunnyvale, Calif.): 7 kills, .600 hitting %, 4 blocks
Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y.): 12 digs, 5 assists
Tyler Stewart (Broomfield, Colo.): 46 assists, 4 digs
 
WAVES VS. MATADORS
The match was close through several categories tonight, with the Waves leading the attack front with 57 kills on a .278 success rate, and giving up only 53 kills on a .256 clip to the Matadors.  The opposition had the edge at the service line, 8-1, and led marginally at the net with 12.0 blocks to Pepperdine's 9.0.  The Waves out-passed the Matadors with a 38-33 dig ratio.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          12        8          27        .148
2          11        4          22        .318
3          17        5          33        .364
4          8          4          28        .143
5          9          1          16        .500
TTL      57        22        126      .278
 
CSUN ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          10        9          29        .034
2          11        3          23        .348
3          10        4          26        .231
4          13        3          23        .391
5          9          2          20        .350
TTL      53        22        121      .256
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
CSUN struck first with a 4-2 lead to open the match, but a kill from Ryan Barnett and block from Barnett with Martin de Chavarria got Pepperdine quickly back on track an en route to a two-point lead of their own, 6-4.  After a 7-6 lead, the Waves started pounding down with kills from Cole Rasic and multiple errors from across the net for a 5-1 run.  A pair of kills from Ethan Watson and Akin Akinwumi extended Pepperdine's advantage to 18-12 down the stretch.  Rasic and de Chavarria went nearly back-to-back and the Waves eventually found themselves in a position to close, 24-16.  After the Matadors fought off a few attempts, Watson put down the final kill of the set, 25-19, for the first real advantage of the night.
 
It would be a see-saw battle through the majority of the second set with Rasic and Akinwumi laying down some kills for a 6-6 tied score before the opposition would build a slit 12-7 lead.  More kills from Barnett and a block from Watson and Rasic helped close the gap to two, 13-11, but the home team would seem to hold that edge through the majority of the set.  The Waves came within one, 20-19, after a big block from Barnett and de Chavarria, but the Matadors were able to end the set 25-20 to tie the overall score.
 
After a 4-4 tie to open the third, a Rasic, de Chavarria block collaboration, followed by a big Cole Ketrzynski smash gave the Waves a 7-5 advantage.  Pepperdine then worked for a 7-3 run with multiple kills from Watson, Rasic and Ketrzysnki, 14-8.  The Waves kept pounding down with several kills from de Chavarria, eventually leading by six, 18-12. Pepperdine battled through a few CSUN points with a back-to-back pair of kills from Ketrzynski and another smash from Barnett, 23-17.  A service error from across the net would put the Waves in a position to close, and though the Matadors countered once, a kill from Rasic ended the set 25-22 and put Pepperdine in a position to close the match.
 
The two teams exchanged points early in the fourth set, with kills coming from Barnett on the Waves side.  After a 3-0 run from CSUN, it would be all Matadors from that point through the end of the set.  Kills from Alex Mrkalj, Joe Deluzio and Rasic helped the cause, but the opposition forced a fifth set with a 25-17 fourth set win.
 
The Waves eventually won 15-12 in the final set.
 
UP NEXT
On Saturday, the Waves make the short trip to Irvine to take on MPSF opponent Concordia Irvine at 7 p.m.
 
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.