MALIBU, Calif. – Postseason action is here for the #9 Pepperdine men's volleyball team and the #5-seeded Waves will kick off the MPSF Championships against #4-seeded and #7-ranked Stanford on Wednesday.
 
MATCH #28 — Wednesday (April 17) at Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif.: MPSF Quarterfinal - (#5 seed) #9 Pepperdine (17-10, 5-7 MPSF) vs. (#4 seed) #7 Stanford (13-11, 6-6 MPSF) at 8 p.m. PT | FloSports
 
MATCH #29 — Thursday (April 18) at Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif.: MPSF Semifinal at TBD | FloSports
 
MATCH #30 — Saturday (April 20) at Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif.: MPSF Final at TBD | FloSports
 
COVERAGE — The MPSF tournament matches will all be streamed on FloSports and have live statistics available. Links can be found at PepperdineWaves.com.
 
UP NEXT — The NCAA selections will be released on NCAA.com on Sunday, April 21 at 1 p.m. PT.
 
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 closed out the regular season with a pair of tough matches against then-ranked #3 Grand Canyon, dropping in straight sets on both occasions.  In the first match, the Waves fell 25-19, 25-16, 25-17 after amassing 27 kills on a .118 clip and giving up 38 kills on a .361 output.  Ryan Barnett and Alex Mrkalj led the squad with eight kills respectively.
 
The second match was more competitive throughout, but GCU collected on 25-22, 25-23 and 25-20 set scores for the win.  Pepperdine posted 40 kills on a .232 clip with four aces, while Grand Canyon produced 42 kills on a .209 success rate with three aces.  Each team posted 7.5 blocks.  Barnett and Cole Ketrzynski led for Pepperdine with 13 and 11 kills respectively.  Martin de Chavarria was good for a team-high six blocks, including three solo rejections.  Cole Rasic led on the back line with 12 digs.
 
SQUAD — The Waves have gone 17-10 to start this season and have won nine of those matches in straight sets.  As a team, Pepperdine produces 12.46 kills on a .306 clip, while adding 11.77 assists, 1.29 aces, 8.81 digs, and 2.42 blocks.  The squad gives up only 11.03 kills on a .237 output on average, along with 1.12 aces, 8.35 digs, and 2.19 blocks.
 
Cole Ketrzynski leads the attack output for the Waves with 3.58 kills/set and 326 total kills.  Akin Akinwumi is second on the team with 2.58 kills/set and 201 total smashes.  Ryan Barnett has also put in a solid presence on the attack front with 2.53 kills/set and 200 kills. 
 
Ethan Watson and Martin de Chavarria lead the squad at the net with 1.26 and 1.16 blocks/set respectively.  De Chavarria has produced 107 blocks, with 14 solo rejections in 92 sets, while Watson has amassed 72 blocks with 12 solo jobs in 57 sets played.  Ketrzynski also leads the team with 25 aces and 0.27 aces/set so far this season, while five other Waves have reached double-figures in aces - Mrkalj (17), Barnett (14), Akinwumi (12), Rasic (11) and Read (10).
 
Trey Cole has marked a team-best 2.21 digs/set, tallying 214 digs this season.  Ryan Graves and Tyler Stewart have seen the most time in playmaking duties, having put up 8.21 and 7.88 assists/set respectively.
 
MPSF WEEKLY NOD — Four times this season, a Pepperdine player has earned Mountain Pacific Sports Federation weekly honors.  Trey Cole tabbed the defensive nod most recently.  Along with Cole's honor, Martin de Chavarria has earned defensive acclaim, while Ryan Barnett and Ryan Graves have garnered offensive honors.
 
OPPONENTS — Stanford is currently ranked #7 in the AVCA coaches poll and finished the regular season with a 13-11 overall record and 6-6 output in MPSF action.  The Waves and Cardinal faced twice in Malibu earlier this season, with both teams taking a four-set victory over the other.  Last week, Stanford closed out the regular season with a pair of wins over #13 USC in Palo Alto.
 
RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #9 in the AVCA national poll this week. The Waves began the season at #13 and have steadily worked ahead in the poll while playing against the nation's toughest programs. 
 
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 (.237) and attacks/set (27.11) and third in digs/set (8.81), assists/set (11.77), blocks/set (2.42), hitting percentage (.306) and kills/set (12.46).  The squad is also top-15 nationally in four categories, including eighth in assists/set, ninth in blocks/set, 11th in kills/set and 13th in hitting percentage.
 
Martin de Chavarria is second in the MPSF and ranks fifth nationally with 1.16 blocks. Trey Cole also leads the league and ranks 12th nationally with 2.21 digs.  Cole Ketrzynski ranks nationally in six separate categories, including 21st in kills (3.58), 20th in points (4.23), 21st in attacks (8.02) and 39th in hitting percentage (.297) - all categories, but one, he ranks in the top five in the league in as well.