MALIBU, Calif. — The #8 Pepperdine men's volleyball team continues a stretch at home by hosting #7 BYU this weekend for a pair of matches.
 
MATCH #22 — Friday (March 22) at Firestone Fieldhouse: #8 Pepperdine (16-5, 4-3 MPSF) vs #7 BYU (11-7, 2-4 MPSF) at 6 p.m. PT | ESPN+
 
MATCH #23 — Saturday (March 23) at Firestone Fieldhouse.: #8 Pepperdine (16-5, 4-3 MPSF) vs #7 BYU (11-7, 2-4 MPSF) at 5 p.m. PT | ESPN+ | Senior Night
 
COVERAGE — All Pepperdine home matches will be streamed live on ESPN+.  Live scoring will be available for all matches.  Links can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.
 
TICKETS & SPECTATOR GUIDELINES — Tickets to all Pepperdine home men's volleyball matches in 2024 will be available via e-ticket only at tickets.pepperdinewaves.com.  Pepperdine faculty, staff and students must show Pepperdine ID card for entry — no ticket purchase is required.
 
Due to campus construction, nearby parking is limited and guests are advised to arrive early.  Each match costs $13 for adults, $8 for seniors (65+) and $5 for children and non-Pepperdine students. 
 
PROMOTIONS — At Friday's match, Pepperdine tumbler cups will be given away to the first 25 students in attendance. Saturday will be senior day, with celebrations to honor the squad's seniors and their families before the game.
 
UP NEXT — Next week, the Waves will travel to USC to face the Trojans once again on Saturday March 30.
 
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 — The Waves took on the Trojans at home and rallied from a first set loss to take the next three sets. The match was tight, with USC taking the lead in kills, posting 59 on a .342 success rate, while Pepperdine marked 55 kills with a .358 hitting percentage. The Waves out-blocked the Trojans, tallying 12 to an opposing nine. Ryan Graves marked 47 assists, leading the Waves offense with eight players earning at least one kill and five with six or more. Cole Ketrzynski led the team in kills, posting 15, while Alex Mrkalj added 10 on a .615 clip. Ethan Watson added six blocks, including one solo, and Martin De Chavarria tallied four.
 
While taking on Concordia Irvine, Pepperdine outperformed the opposition offensively, recording 49 kills on a .512 success rate, compared to 28 kills on a .344 clip. Akin Akinwumi led the squad in kills with 14 on a .522 clip, and Ryan Barnett trailed close behind adding 11 with a .500 hitting percentage. Graves marked 37 assists and 10 digs, and the Waves' hitting percentage was the second-highest this season and the program's third time hitting .500 or above collectively.
 
SQUAD — The Waves have gone 16-5 to start this season and have won nine of those matches in straight sets.  As a team, Pepperdine produces 12.60 kills on a .327 clip, while adding 11.93 assists, 1.33 aces, 8.95 digs and 2.53 blocks.  The squad gives up only 10.41 kills on a .205 output on average, along with 1.13 aces, 8.01 digs and 2.47 blocks.
 
Cole Ketrzynski leads the attack output for the Waves with 3.73 kills/set and 246 total kills.  Ryan Barnett has also put in a solid presence on the attack front with 2.54 kills/set and 155 kills.  Their .331 and .317 respective hitting percentages rank third and fourth in the league and top-25 nationally.
 
Ethan Watson and Martin de Chavarria lead the squad at the net with 1.48 and 1.22 blocks/set respectively.  De Chavarria has produced 83 blocks, with eight solo rejections in 68 sets, while Watson has amassed 59 blocks with 10 solo jobs in 40 sets played.  Ketrzynski also leads the team with 19 aces and 0.29 aces/set so far this season, while Cole Rasic and Barnett have reached double-figure ace territory with 10 and 12 so far this season (0.19 and .20). 
 
Trey Cole has marked a team-best 2.13 digs/set, tallying 153 digs this season.  Tyler Stewart and Ryan Graves have seen the most time in playmaking duties, having put up 8.22 and 7.94 assists/set respectively.
 
OPPONENTS — BYU ranks #7 in the AVCA national poll this week, after taking wins against #4 UCLA and #7 Stanford in five-set battles. The Cougars most recently fell while facing then-ranked #7 Stanford for the second time, 0-3, last week. BYU is 2-4 in conference play, posting an overall 11-7 record, with a 4-2 away record. The Cougars have recorded 11.75 kills per set on a .290 success rate, with opponents posting 11.74 kills with a .277 hitting percentage.
 
RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #8 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 and remained there for the second-consecutive week. After picking up a win against #11 USC, they slotted the #8 spot.  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 first in the MPSF in opponent hitting percentage (.217) and second in team attacks (26.56) and assists (11.93), third in digs (8.95), blocks (2.48), kills (12.60) and hitting percentage (.327). The squad is also top-10 nationally in six categories, including seventh in assists, eighth in blocks and hitting percentage, and 10th in kills and opponent hitting percentage.
 
Martin de Chavarria is second in the MPSF and ranks sixth nationally with 1.22 blocks. Trey Cole also leads the league and ranks 11th nationally with 2.12 digs.  Cole Ketrzynski ranks nationally in six separate categories, including 15th with 3.73 kills and points per set (4.36) and 19th in attacks per set (7.95) - all categories he ranks in the top three in the league in as well.
 
MPSF WEEKLY ACCLAIM — Freshman setter Ryan Graves led the Waves to a pair of MPSF wins at home last week, resulting in earning his first league offensive player of the week honor in the process. 
 
He showed out for the Waves this week, leading in playmaking duties en route to a four-set win over #11 USC and a sweep over Concordia, a team that was receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll.  He dished out a career-high-tying 47 assists, while pushing the Waves to a .358 team output in the win over the Trojans.  He continued with that energy en route to his second-career double-double with 37 assists and a team-best 10 digs, while propelling Pepperdine to a .513 collective hitting percentage.  That percentage was the program's second-highest collective output of the season and third above .500 this season.  Collectively over the two matches, Graves helped the squad to a .423 success rate with 14.86 kills.  He led the team with 12.00 assists and 2.00 digs per set, with 84 total assists and 14 digs through seven sets. 
 
It's the third weekly award for the Waves this season, as Ryan Barnett picked up offensive honors and Martin de Chavarria earned defensive honors earlier in the year.

TEAM USA — This week, assistant coach Matthew Pollock was slated to serve as an assistant coach for Team USA's 2024 U21 NORCECA Men's Continental Championship during this summer.  He will be joining the team for training in Colorado Springs, Colo. from June 1-8 before heading to Nogales, Mexico for the championship from June 9-17.