SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team's (18-8, 12-3 West Coast Conference) 10-match win streak came to an end at the hands of the RV San Diego Toreros (22-4, 15-0 West Coast Conference) in San Diego Thursday night.
With the loss, San Diego won its first West Coast Conference title since 2022.
"The opponent came out firing on all cylinders and despite some nice attempts to fight back, we never were able to find our aggressive style of play," Pepperdine Head Coach Scott Wong said.
Although both teams played stellar volleyball in the early goings, the San Diego Toreros leaned on sophomore Nemo Beach's 21 kill effort and solid back row play to find success. Despite Pepperdine's block having seven blocks to San Diego's three, the Toreros' offensive output was too much for the Waves to handle.
Maggie Beauer led Pepperdine with 14 kills, while reigning West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week Ella Piskorz led the Waves with five blocks to go along with nine kills. Chloe Pravednikov (seven kills) and Vanessa Polk (six kills) were both instrumental in the Waves' offense. Freshman setter Tristen Raymond also finished with the 12th double-double of the season with 25 assists and 14 digs, while Laine Briggs ended one dig shy of tying her career high with 23.
Both teams played well from the jump. Neither squad could gain substantial separation from the other until the Toreros jumped out to a 10-7 lead. Beauer and Polk helped the Waves rally back to tie the score at 10, but the aforementioned Beach rattled off two of her seven kills in the first set to give San Diego a lead it wouldn't relinquish. San Diego went on a 8-2 run midway through the set and, although a kill from Beauer would cut the lead down to two at 19-17, that run ended up being the difference as the Toreros won the first set 25-19.
Like the first set, the two teams couldn't pull away from each other in a back-and-forth second set until the Toreros went on a 6-0 run to break an 8-8 tie. The Waves sided out at 15-10 and sent Charis Kai back to serve, where she served Pepperdine's lone ace of the match. However, Beach outdid herself by sparking a 7-0 run with three-straight kills, which eventually gave San Diego a 21-11 lead over Pepperdine. The Waves made a switch to the 6-2 and its offense started stringing points together from Beauer, Piskorz and Polk, but their efforts were too little, too late as San Diego took the second set 25-18.
Beauer kicked off the third set with three early kills to help Pepperdine take a 5-1 lead, yet San Diego went on a 12-1 run to flip the script and go up 13-6. Pepperdine trailed by as many as seven points on three different occasions before the Waves mounted one last comeback attempt. Trailing 21-16, Polk helped the Waves side out with a kill, then Pravednikov's swing found the floor and Grace Jackson recorded consecutive kills to pull the Waves within one. The Waves would tie the score at 23, but San Diego eventually won the match with a 25-23 third-set win.
The Waves head back to Los Angeles to face LMU on the road Saturday at 1 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.
