PORTLAND, Ore. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team (11-7, 5-2 WCC) capped off its first perfect road trip in West Coast Conference play by sweeping the Portland Pilots (9-9, 4-3 WCC) on Saturday afternoon.
"As we continue to dive into our WCC schedule, it's been great to see our team mature and become resilient while competing," Head Coach Scott Wong said. "We are throwing a lot at our young ladies, and they are doing a nice job retaining it and focusing on the growth process and not just zooming in our results."
Individually, Laine Briggs put on a serving clinic with a career-high five service aces — including three in a row in a four-ace second set — and led the team with 11 digs. Maggie Beauer led the team with 12 kills, while reigning WCC Defensive Player of the Week Irelynd Lorenzen nearly tied her career high with eight total blocks to go along with seven kills.
Pepperdine shook off a slow start in the first set with a big run that flipped the script on the Pilots. Trailing 8-7, Pepperdine tied the score with a service error, sending Tristen Raymond back to serve out the rest of the 8-0 run. Beauer, who had an incredibly efficient first set, chipped in two kills and a pair of block assists with Lorenzen, then Raymond chipped in a pair of aces to cap off the Waves' run.
When the dust settled, the Waves were up 15-8, Portland was out of timeouts and Pepperdine was in complete control the rest of the way. Pepperdine closed the set with a 6-0 run to take the first set 25-13.
Briggs stole the show early in the second set, showing why she is one of the WCC's best servers with four aces in the second set. The junior libero went back to serve and immediately served three consecutive aces — whether it was making the Pilots' back line make mad dashes to the back wall, or catching the defense off-guard as her serve suddenly dropped in between the Pilots' lines. In the blink of an eye, Briggs's third consecutive ace made the score 6-0, giving the Waves a comfortable cushion to work with for the remainder of the set.
Whenever Portland tried stringing points together, Lorenzen was there with a timely kill. She finished with three in the frame, but nearly all of them snapped Portland runs. The Pilots got within two points at 19-17, yet Tristen Raymond found Lorenzen for a kill. A pair of timely blocks from Vanessa Polk and Lorenzen helped the Waves take the second set 25-19.
Pepperdine saved its most efficient set of the afternoon for last, hitting .382 while holding Portland to a .150 hitting percentage. Beauer had five kills and Polk had four in the third set alone. Although Portland led 8-7 midway through the set, the Waves went on a 7-1 run to put the Pilots away for good. In that run, Lorenzen contributed on both offense and defense, while Emma McMahon served up another ace for the Waves to make the score 14-9.
The Pilots would only get within four points of the Waves from that point forward. Pepperdine would make quick work of Portland late, closing the set on a 5-0 run and winning the match off a Lorenzen tip, capping off the dominant, 25-15 final set.
Pepperdine returns to Malibu to host Oregon State next Thursday at 6 p.m. All schedule updates can be found on the women's volleyball team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Pepperdine women's volleyball has reached 26 NCAA Tournaments since 1981 as one of the most successful collegiate programs on the West Coast. The 12-time WCC Champions Waves have consistently produced top talent with 21 All-American selections with honorees in six straight decades. With multiple Olympians going through the program, Kim Hill brought home the program's first gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games.
