MALIBU, Calif. – For the second time in as many days, the #8 Pepperdine men's volleyball team went to five sets with #7 BYU in Firestone Fieldhouse, with the Waves ending the nearly three-hour thriller with a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation loss.
 
After the Waves (16-7, 4-5 MPSF) won the first set 25-23, the Cougars (13-7, 4-4 MPSF) answered with a 25-17 second set win of their own.  The two teams then split the following sets 25-21, 19-25 before BYU ended things with a 15-7 final set.
 
In the five five-set matches the Waves have played this season, they have only dropped the two this week, having picked up wins over #16 CSUN, #17 UC Santa Barbara, and Concordia, a team that was receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll.   
 
Cole Ketrzynski commanded the offensive line for the Waves, amassing 19 kills with his 19^th double-figure kill match of the season.  He added nine digs and four blocks in an all-around effort.  Trey Cole held down the back line once again, posting 13 digs for his second-consecutive match with double-digit digs.  He has achieved the feat nine times so far this season and 23 times throughout his career.
 
Eight seniors – Akin Akinwumi, Trey Cole, Eli Crane, Martin de Chavarria, Joe Deluzio, Andersen Fuller, Cole Ketrzynski and Alex Mrkalj – were honored prior to first serve.
 
BIG WAVES
Cole Ketrzynski (Toronto, Ontario, Canada): 19 kills, 9 digs, 4 blocks, 1 ace
Ryan Graves (Irvine, Calif.): 38 assists, 6 digs, 2 kills, 1 block
Martin De Chavarria (Palma de Mallorca, Spain): 8 kills, 4 blocks, 2 digs
Trey Cole (Long Island, N.Y.): 13 digs
Akin Akinwumi (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.): 5 digs, 3 kills, 3 assists, 1 ace, 1 block
Alex Mrkalj (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada): 5 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces, 1 block
Ryan Barnett (Long Island, N.Y.): 6 kills, 2 digs, 1 block, 1 ace
Ethan Watson (Sunnyvale, Calif.): 4 kills, 2 blocks
Brendan Read (Newport Beach, Calif.): 2 aces
 
WAVES VS. COUGARS
BYU led the offensive with 67 kills on a .370 clip, posting more kills in a single match against Pepperdine than any other team this season.  The Waves finished with 50 kills on a .182 output.  The opposition led at the net as well with 17.0 blocks to the home team's 8.5, though Pepperdine led with eight aces to BYU's three throughout the match.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          13        3          27        .370
2          8          8          29        .000
3          14        5          32        .281
4          10        6          32        .125
5          5          3          17        .118
TTL      50        25        137      .182
 
BYU ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          17        3          30        .467
2          13        4          30        .300
3          13        3          34        .294
4          16        6          33        .303
5          8          0          11        .727
TTL      67        16        138      .370
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
The two teams picked up right where they left off on Friday night, exchanging points early on in the match.  An early wall of a block featuring Alex Mrkalj, Akin Akinwumi and Ethan Watson kept things tight en route to a 5-5 tie.  BYU pulled away marginally to a three-point spread after that, but smashes from Mrkalj and Martin de Chavarria helped close the gap and tie things once again at 9-all.  After a see-saw battle to 14's, Akinwumi laid down an ace and Pepperdine followed up with a Waston, Cole Ketrzynski block collaboration to give the home squad a 16-14 lead.  Joe Deluzio kept things going with an ace before a pair of back-to-back smashes from Ketrzynski put the spread at four, 20-16, and forced a BYU timeout.  After some more back-and-forth, the Cougars were able to tie the set once again at 22-apiece, but the Waves got to set-point with a serving error from across the net and an Akinwumi smash.  The opposition fended one off, but put another serve in the net to end the set, 25-23 Waves. 
 
Though the score reached 6's to open the second set, BYU started to pull away with a few well-placed attack attempts and eventually led 13-8.  Ryan Graves, de Chavarria and Ketrzynski connected on a block collaboration to bring the score within four, 17-13, but the oppositions regained composure to extend their lead to eight, 23-15.  Pepperdine was unable to close the gap and BYU evened things up with a 25-17 set win.
 
Pepperdine got off to a strong start in the third set, though each side of the net would reach 11-all after exchanging blows.  Shortly after, however, de Chavarria put down a pair of kills to give the Waves a. slight edge, 15-13.  After a media timeout, Ketrzynski found a line for an ace and de Chavarria picked up a solo rejection to extend the lead to four and force a quick BYU timeout.  The Waves used that momentum to stay ahead through the rest of the set and Andersen Fuller and Mrkalj would lay down a pair of kills en route to a 21-16 lead.  The opposition then went on a four-point run to come within one, but a Cougars' service error and another kill from de Chavarria in the middle made it 23-20.  Brendan Read came in to make an impact with his sixth ace of the season and put the home squad in a position to close the set, 24-20.  BYU would pick up one more kill in the set, but Ketrzynski and de Chavarria would answer with a block connection to shut things down 25-21.
 
The Cougars answered early in the do-or-die fourth set, amassing a 7-2 lead to open the set.  Though kills from Ketrzynski, Fuller and de Chavarria would help the Waves close the gap to two, forcing a BYU timeout at the 11-9 mark.  Pepperdine continued closing the gap out of the break as kills from Ryan Barnett and Ketrzynski, as well as capitalizing on multiple Cougars' errors, knotted the scores at 13-apiece.   After exchanging points, the opposition started to pull away with a 4-0 run to lead 19-15.  The Waves put in a triple block featuring Barnett, de Chavarria and Ketrzynski to help the cause, but the Cougars eventually reached set point at 24-19 and forced the fifth on a Pepperdine attack error.
 
Each side of the net tabbed a quick point to start the set, but the Cougars then broke away to a 5-2 advantage.  A Waves' sideout, followed by a smash from Ketrzynski and another ace from Read brought the squad within one in the next few plays.  Despite a few strong points, BYU was ahead 8-5 at the turn.  The two teams continued to exchange points en route to an 11-7 advantage for the opposition.  With the momentum on the other side of the court, however, BYU ended the match on a 5-0 scoring run to win 15-7.
 
UP NEXT
Next week on Saturday, March 30, Pepperdine makes the short trip to USC to take on the Trojans.
 
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.