COLUMBUS, Ohio – The sixth-ranked Pepperdine men's volleyball team opens 2025 NCAA Tournament play as the fifth seed against seventh-ranked and fourth-seeded Loyola Chicago with first serve set for 4:30 p.m. PT Thursday, May 8.
COVERAGE – The quarterfinals and semifinals are to be streamed on ESPN+ with the championship airing on ESPN2. Tickets, stat and watch links can be found on pepperdinewaves.com.
FAMILIAR TERRITORY – No strangers to Columbus, the Pepperdine men's volleyball squad will open its 19th NCAA Tournament berth against seventh-ranked and fourth-seeded Loyola Chicago in the quarterfinal round. The Waves won their first NCAA Championship in CBus, with two five-set wins over Ohio State (semifinals) and UCLA (finals) in 1978 with
Marv Dunphy at the helm. Pepperdine has won a total of five championships since that year, also earning the trophy in 1985, 1986, 1992 and 2005.
LAST TIME OUT — With arguably the toughest route to the championship, Pepperdine ripped through the MPSF Tournament two weeks ago, defeating the likes of #11 GCU (QF), #2 UCLA (SF) and #5 USC (F) en route to its seventh league trophy in program history. Outside
Ryan Barnett was named MVP after leading all hitters in the bracket with 4.75 kills per set while recording 57 total kills through nine sets. The redshirt junior earned career-highs in 23 kills, 25.5 points and 11 digs against USC.
Ilay Haver also had a nice run through the three matches, but shined in the championship contest, recording 18 digs to go with a .950 reception percentage and 11 kills. Libero
Jacob Reilly and oppo
Cole Hartke also made the All-Tournament team.
ALL-AMERICAN FELLAS — Five members of the team were honored as AVCA Division I-II Men's Volleyball All-America selections, announced earlier this week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Outside hitter
Ryan Barnett was named to the AVCA First Team, while
Cole Hartke and
Jacob Reilly earned Second Team honors.
Gabe Dyer and
James Eadie received Honorable Mention accolades. Barnett ranks in the top-25 nationally in four statistical categories: aces per set, hitting percentage, kills per set and points per set. The redshirt-junior leads the Waves kills per set (3.65) and is second on the team in points per set (4.37). He recorded double-digit kills in 21 of 22 matches played, including a season high 23 kills in the MPSF Tournament championship against USC. Barnett also tallied 45 aces and 119 digs on the year. Hartke is the highest scoring freshman in the country, averaging 4.38 points per set. The freshman totaled 335 kills in 92 sets, hitting at a .310 clip. He averaged 3.64 kills and 0.52 blocks per set. Reilly earned the only libero nod on the first and second team as we tallied 185 digs this season and collected a season high 12 digs in the MPSF Tournament championship against USC. He also added 42 assists in 28 matches. Reilly also completed the MPSF regular season as the most efficient libero in the conference, recording the least amount of reception errors and resulting in a .958 reception percentage. Dyer directed the Pepperdine offense to a .328 team hitting percentage, which ranks eighth in NCAA Division I-II. He averaged 9.66 assists per set and added 29 blocks, 176 digs, and 9 service aces over 29 matches. Eadie recorded 124 kills (1.61 per set) while hitting .410 across 23 matches. He leads the waves with .974 blocks per set while gathering a total 0f 75 on the season.
FOTY — Freshman opposite
Cole Hartke completed the 2025 MPSF season at fourth for kills per set (3.64) and services aces per set (.46), as the conference awarded him
with Freshman of the Year. Hartke produced double-digit kills in 18 regular season matches, including in all 12 of MPSF competition. He had a 24-kill outing, just two kills off the MPSF season-high, with a .475 clip against Loyola-Chicago (Jan. 30). He was named MPSF/Molten Offensive Player of the Week twice this year (Apr. 7, Mar. 3), following a 36-kill and 33-kill MPSF series vs. Grand Canyon and USC, respectively. Hartke, the only freshman named to this year's All-MPSF first team, is Pepperdine's fifth MPSF Freshman of the Year recipient (
Ethan Watson, 2024;
Jonathan Winder, 2005; Sean Rooney, 2002; Scott Wong, 1998).
ALL-MPSF SELECTIONS — Ryan Barnett, Jacob Reilly and
Gabe Dyer also earned All-MPSF honors, landing on the first team, second team and honorable mention lists, respectively. Barnett ranks among the league's top hitters and servers, sitting third in aces (43), eighth in hitting percentage (.341), and tied for sixth in kills (315). Reilly leads the MPSF in reception efficiency and ranks sixth in digs (163), while Dyer is fourth in assists (884) and eighth in digs (160), also tallying multiple career-high performances this season.
FAMILY TIES - Libero and recent serving ace
Brendan Read will have a little more on the table against Loyola Chicago as his brother– Jake Read– will be playing across the net in a Ramblers uniform. Hailing from Newport Beach, the brothers are only separated by a couple of years, as Brendan– a senior– graduated from Pepperdine last week and Jake is currently in his sophomore season in Chicago.
ON THE RAMBLERS - As a team, LUC ranks fifth in the nation in aces per set (1.82), first in assists per set (12.5), third in blocks per set (2.57) and first in kills per set (13.35). The Ramblers finished the 2025 regular season 22-3 while remaining undefeated in nonconference play. In March, the team defeated No. 7 CSUN, seeing their highest-ranked competition of the season go down in five sets. LUC blew through the MIVA Tournament with three triple-set wins en route to the conference crown. In January, the Waves attempted to reverse sweep the Ramblers while meeting in Malibu but were bested by Loyola Chicago 3-2. Pepperdine fell into a three-game slump that week after taking top-ranked Long Beach State to five sets just days before the Ramblers and Waves met. LUC leads the all-time record with Pepperdine at 3-1.
POTENTIAL OPPS — Should the Waves win on Thursday, the likes of either top-seeded Long Beach State or eighth-seed Fort Valley State Saturday, May 10 at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET in the semifinals.
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.
ROSTER NUMBERS — The Waves are returning 11 players this season, including five starters, while also adding 15 new faces to the squad. MPSF Freshman of the Year,
Ethan Watson, returns for Pepperdine after coming in second on the team for total blocks, posting 74 throughout his 60 sets played. Outside hitter,
Ryan Barnett, ranked in the top five in three separate statistical categories for the team last season, including posting 200 kills, 82 digs, and 14 service aces throughout his 80 sets played. Sophomore setter,
Ryan Graves, is also returning for his second year after leading the team in assists as the key playmaker for Pepperdine last season. Graves posted 596 assists 18 kills, and five service aces during the 2024 season.
FRESH FACES — Pepperdine has 15 newcomers this season, including 11 freshmen and four transfers. Outside hitter,
Cole Hartke joins the Waves as a three-time JVA All-American, Volleyball Magazine All-American, member of the U21 Men's National Team, and won gold this season at the Norceca Pan-Am Championship. Outside,
Jose Gomez also joins the squad after having international experience playing with Cuba's U19 and U21 National teams, playing in three Norceca Pan-Am Cups. Joining the Waves in January is freshman
Grant Lamoureux who served as the captain for the U19 National Indoor Team this summer at the Norceca Continental Championship, helping the team capture a gold medal. He is a two-time AAU All-American and a three-time JVA All-American, and in the sand placed ninth at the Beach 2024 U19 World Championships in China. The Waves' transfer crew includes graduate student brothers George and
Gabe Dyer who came to Pepperdine after playing for UC San Diego and USC, respectively.
Jacob Reilly joins Pepperdine from Concordia University Irvine, after playing two seasons as a libero for the Golden Eagles.
2024 SEASON — Pepperdine concluded the 2024 campaign ranked #10 in the country. The Waves went 17-11 overall and finished fifth in the MPSF regular season after tallying a 5-7 league record. The Waves faced Stanford in the MPSF Tournament, falling in the first round.
COACHES — Returning for his fifth season as an associate head coach,
Matthew Pollock will rejoin the sidelines for the Waves. With Pollock on the staff, the Waves advanced to the NCAA Tournament and finished with a #5 ranking in both 2021 and 2022. Pollock played for the Waves from 2009-12 and was a starter middle blocker in his final two seasons, earning All-MPSF honors as a senior. He played professionally in Finland, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy and Germany.
Luke Reynolds joined the Waves' sideline this summer after serving as a head coach for the University of Charleston's program. He also was recently hired as Team USA's collegiate national men's team assistant coach in 2024. While with the Golden Eagles for three seasons, Reynolds led the team to 44 wins and a .543 winning percentage. He garnered EIVA Coach of the Year in 2023 after leading the program to a 22-7 record with a 14-match winning streak to open the season. That year, the team entered the AVCA national coaches polls for the first time in program history.
Will Craft also joined the staff as an assistant in July 2023, bringing a wealth of playing and coaching experience at both the professional and collegiate levels. He most recently served as the head men's coach at Dominican (DIII) and was named Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year. He was an All-American at Carthage before playing with SVG.
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