SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team (1-1) hung with the defending Conference USA champion UTEP Miners (2-0) in all three sets, yet the Miners swept the Waves at the Sacramento State Invitational on Saturday night.
Once again, the Waves' sophomore tandem of Maggie Beauer and Chloe Pravednikov led the Waves with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Junior libero Laine Briggs led the team with 12 digs and sparked the Waves with two service aces early in the first set. Brynne McGhie and Tristen Raymond ran the offense once again, notching 15 and 12 assists, respectively.
Pepperdine started the first set strong, bolting out to a big lead in part due to consecutive service aces from Briggs. Vanessa Polk capped off the 7-1 opening run with a kill, giving the Waves a valuable cushion for the first half of the set. But the Miners stormed back with a 7-0 run of their own to flip the script and take a 12-9 lead. From that point forward, the Waves had to play catch-up.
Late in the set, the Waves tied the score at 19 with a kill from Pravednikov, then Irelynd Lorenzen knotted the score at 21-all with a kill of her own. However, the Miners closed the set on a 4-0 run for their 25-21 come-from-behind win.
In the second set, Pepperdine fell behind in the early stages. Trailing 13-10, the Waves eventually tied the score at 14 with a 4-1 run consisting of kills from Beauer and Ella Piskorz before Raymond capped off the run with an ace. From there, the score was tied nine more times. Pepperdine looked poised for a breakthrough as Ryan Gilhooly's ace gave the Waves a 23-22 advantage, but the Miners sided out to force set point. Pravednikov saved a set point with her fourth kill of the frame, but the Miners eked out a 26-24 second-set win.
The Waves hung with the Miners in the third set. Midway through the frame, junior Grace Jackson came off the bench and sparked the Waves with a pair of block assists and a kill, the latter of which helped Pepperdine go up 16-15. Unfortunately for Pepperdine, that would be its last lead of the match. Although Pepperdine didn't let UTEP lead by more than two points for the remainder of the match, the Waves couldn't pull ahead and eventually fell 25-23.
Pepperdine had a 7-5 advantage behind the service line, but UTEP's block was as good as advertised. Torrance Lovesee led UTEP with 11 kills, three service aces, five digs and five total blocks, plus UTEP's defense was as good as advertised. The Miners had 9.0 team blocks to Pepperdine's 7.0 team blocks.
Pepperdine wraps up the Sacramento State Invitational by taking on the host team Hornets tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. The match will be livestreamed on ESPN+. 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.
