MALIBU, Calif. — Pulling off its second reverse-sweep of the year, the Pepperdine women's volleyball team (5-3) showed great resolve to knock off UC Santa Barbara on the road on Tuesday night.
UCSB, which received votes in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, took two close sets, putting Pepperdine's back against the wall. However, with help from a career-high 17 kills from Maggie Beauer and a strong showing up front from the block, the Waves flipped the script to win their second five-set match of the season.
Up front, Ella Piskorz had a season-high 14 kills and a team-high eight total blocks, while fellow middle blockers Irelynd Lorenzen (six kills, four total blocks) and Vanessa Polk (nine kills, three total blocks) helped the Waves amass 12 blocks to UCSB's nine. Chloe Pravednikov added 13 kills and a pair of blocks, including one emphatic rejection that fired up the Waves in the fifth set. Freshman Tristen Raymond had a double-double with 28 assists and 13 digs to go along with four blocks and four kills, plus the Waves continued their strong serving with Emma McMahon and Laine Briggs notching two aces apiece.
Trailing 9-3 early in the third set, the prognosis looked bleak for the Waves. Yet the Waves gradually dug themselves out of the deficit by pulling within one point. With Brynne McGhie back to serve, the Waves took advantage of a pair of Gaucho errors, then McGhie served up an ace to make the score 15-14, UCSB. But the Gauchos built their lead back to four, taking a 18-14 lead off an ace.
Needing to make a big surge to stay in the match, the Waves did exactly that with a 6-0 run that turned the tide of the match. Piskorz came alive with three kills in that run, then Beauer notched a kill of her own to take a 20-18 lead. Pepperdine never trailed from that point forward, as the Waves took set three 25-22 off a UCSB service error.
The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair until Pepperdine blew open the set with a 6-0 run midway through the frame. Trailing 14-13, McGhie found Piskorz for a kill to help the Waves side out, then Pepperdine used a balanced offensive attack and a big block from Raymond and Lorenzen to take a 19-14 lead. A kill from Polk gave Pepperdine its first match point at 24-18, then the Waves pushed the match to a fifth set with a 25-19 fourth-set win.
With the Gauchos fighting back in the fifth set, the final frame had plenty of drama. Both teams traded 3-0 runs early, then UCSB appeared to pull ahead for good, leading 11-9. But back-to-back blocks from Piskorz and Polk capped off a late 4-0 Pepperdine run that ended up being the difference-maker. Polk's second kill of the set gave the Waves match point, then Pravednikov ended the match with her third kill of the fifth set to cap off the come-from-behind 15-12 fifth-set win.
Pepperdine's road swing continues with three matches at the Sun Devil Classic in Tempe, Ariz., starting with a 6 p.m. match against GCU on Thursday. 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.
