MALIBU, Calif. – Freshman setter Ryan Graves earned his second career double-double in Firestone Fieldhouse on Saturday, while dishing the #9 Pepperdine men's volleyball team to a clean sweep over CUI, a team receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll this week.
 
Pepperdine (16-5, 4-3 MPSF) won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest over Concordia (6-10, 0-4 MPSF) with 25-18, 25-20 and 25-21 set wins.  
 
Graves marked 37 assists and 10 digs, while pushing the Waves offensive to 49 kills on an impressive .512 success rate.  The Waves' hitting percentage was the second-highest this season and the program's third time hitting .500 or above collectively.  The squad has hit above .300 in 14 of 21 matches this season and above the .400 mark in five, which ranks them eighth nationally in the category before this week's matches.
 
Akin Akinwumi and Ryan Barnett led with 14 and 11 kills respectively, both hitting .500 or above.  Akinwumi has amassed double-figure kills five times this season and 11 times throughout his career, while Barnett has achieved the feat eight times this season and 10 times overall.  Along the line impressive hitting percentages included Martin de Chavarria who tied his season-high effort in kills with nine on 12 errorless swings for a .750 success rate.
 
BIG WAVES
Akin Akinwumi (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.): 14 kills, .522 hitting %, 3 digs, 1 block, 1 ace
Ryan Barnett (Long Island, N.Y.): 11 kills, .500 hitting %, 8 digs, 1 ace
Ryan Graves (Irvine, Calif.): 37 assists, 10 digs
Martin De Chavarria (Palma de Mallorca, Spain): 9 kills (0 errors), .750 hitting %, 1 block
Cole Ketrzynski (Toronto, Ontario, Canada): 8 kills, .375 hitting %, 3 digs, 1 ace
Ethan Watson (Sunnyvale, Calif.): 6 kills, .444 hitting %
Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y.): 5 assists, 2 digs
Alex Mrkalj (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada): 2 aces
 
WAVES VS. GOLDEN EAGLES
Offense was the name of the game for Pepperdine tonight, as the Waves blasted off with 49 kills on a .512 success rate, compared to the Golden Eagles 28 kills on a .344 clip.  Pepperdine kept CUI to only five kills in the opening set to set the tone.  The home team had a narrow edge at the service line as well, posting six aces to the opposition's five.  Though CUI led 6.0 to 1.0 in blocks, Pepperdine led 27-19 in digs.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          19        3          32        .500
2          17        3          25        .560
3          12        3          23        .391
TTL      28        6          64        .344
 
CONCORDIA ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          5          2          17        .176
2          11        1          24        .417
3          13        2          23        .478
TTL      49        8          80        .512

PLAY-BY-PLAY
CUI collected on the first two plays and worked ahead to an early 6-3 lead, but Pepperdine countered quickly with a pair of aces from Akin Akinwumi and Cole Ketrzynski to help edge the set to a 9-9 tie.  The opposition pulled ahead by two, but the Waves posted big kills from Martin de Chavarria and Ethan Watson, along with a high IQ play from Ryan Graves to once again close the gap to 16-all. It was there the home team would start to take the advantage, capitalizing on a Golden Eagles' attack error and an ace from Alex Mrkalj to take a two-point lead themselves.  The Waves kept rolling with a pair of kills from Akinwumi and Ryan Barnett for a four-point lead, 20-16.  Though CUI collected the next point, the Waves quickly went on another 4-0 run courtesy of kills from Barnett.  He would be the one to end the set in Pepperdine's favor as well, with a monster smash to close out the set 25-18.  The Waves kept the Golden Eagles to only five kills in the set.
 
Pepperdine used the momentum from the first set to head in the right direction during the second, blasting away with kills from Akinwumi and Barnett en route to a 6-2 lead.  The opposition brought the deficit within one, 9-8, but another trio of smashes from Akinwumi, Ketrzynski and de Chavarria pushed the squad to a 13-10 lead.  The kills kept coming with either side recording a kill for nine-consecutive plays through the middle of the set, including a back-to-back smash effort from Ketrzynski to see the score reach 19-13 in favor of the home squad.  Another ace from Mrkalj late in the set helped the cause and a final smash from de Chavarria would result in a 25-20 Waves' win in set two.  
 
With the two-set lead heading into the third, the Waves came out strong with a pair of Watson kills and an ace from Barnett to pull ahead 5-3.  CUI was able to tie things back up at 7's, however, and the two squads would then trade points to 12-apiece.  The opposition eventually pulled away to a two-point lead at the 19-16 mark with a pair of kills, but an ace from Joe Deluzio and a kill from each Akinwumi and Watson tied things up once again and forced a Golden Eagles timeout.  Out of the break, Barnett and de Chavarria collected on kills and Pepperdine received a point from a CUI red card for a 3-0 run.  With the energy on the Waves' side of the court, another kill from Akinwumi kept things going and an attack error from across the net eventually put the squad in position to close, 24-20.  After a service error, de Chavarria blasted down the last kill of the night for the 25-21 set win and a clean sweep for the Waves.
 
UP NEXT
On March 22 and 23, Pepperdine will host BYU for a pair of MPSF matches.
 
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.