MALIBU, Calif. –  The No. 6 Pepperdine men's volleyball team (13-4, 3-0 MPSF) hosts the Bobcats of UC Merced (3-11, 0-6 MPSF) for one match Friday night and senior day Saturday afternoon.
 
LAST TIME OUT
•Pepperdine swept Menlo in the one match between the two squads.
• Grant Lamoureux led the team in kills with 11, followed closely by Matt Mazur who had eight.
• The Waves had a season-high 17 aces against Menlo.
 
GAME NOTES
• Owning 5 NCAA titles and 19 MPSF titles, with the most recent conference title being earned last year, the Waves are no stranger to what it takes to put together a championship-level team.
• With one of the toughest schedules in the NCAA, Pepperdine is setting the season up for success with the team's sights set on a trip back to the NCAA tournament, which expanded to 12 teams this year.
•All four losses this season have come to ranked opponents as the Waves remain perfect in conference play.
• Ryan Barnett, James Eadie, Cole Hartke, and Jacob Reilly all return as All-Americans for the Waves.
• Barnett, Hartke, and Reilly all played on some level of the national team this summer.
• Ryan Barnett earned a silver medal with the U23 team at the Pan American Cup while also playing on the senior USA team with Jacob Reilly in the Pan American Cup.
• Cole Hartke earned a bronze in the FIVB World Championship with the U21 team, the farthest the USA has ever gotten in the tournament.
• Pepperdine leads the entire MPSF in blocks per set with an average of 2.52.
• Individually, James Eadie had the best defensive game so far this season for the Waves, recording 8.0 blocks at Lewis Jan. 24.
• Winning his third and fourth collegiate conference honors this season, Cole Hartke swept the MPSF awards with an offensive and defensive Player of the Week nod after a sweep of Loyola Chicago and reverse-sweep of Lewis.
• Nationally, Hartke earned the AVCA National Player of the Week that same week.
• Only a sophomore, the Barrington, Ill. native is the reigning MPSF Freshman of the year as well as a second-team All American.
• Among the AVCA National Player of the Year Watchlist, Hartke is head and shoulders above the competition, averaging 4.56 kills per set, totalling 48 blocks and 26 aces.
• Each match, coaches are given two unsuccessful challenges per set. If a challenge is used and deemed successful, the coach gets to keep it to use at a later time.
• Going two-for-two against Penn St. head coach Winder continues to prove how using the given challenges wisely can swing the momentum of a game.
• Winder went five for eight with his challenge card last weekend at the University of Hawaii, including a successful challenge at the 34-34 mark of the final set Friday night. 
• Subbing in partway through the season as a starter for the Waves, sophomore Jose Gomez has taken his role in stride.
• Hitting .324 on the year with 24 blocks, the Cuba native was just named MPSF Defensive Player of the Week after his standout performance last week in the two matches against No. 3 Hawaii.
• Redshirting last season, Grant Lamoureux is a player to keep an eye out for on this star-studded roster.
• Named the Junior Male Indoor Athlete of the Year this past year, the redshirt freshman brings plenty of experience regardless of never logging collegiate minutes.
• This summer, Lamoureux was a captain of the U19 World Championship squad with team USA where he led the team in kills nearly every time out.
• Redshirt Ford Harman transferred into Pepperdine from national-champion Long Beach State.
• This summer, Harman earned a Silver medal at the 2025 Men's Beach Collegiate Challenge for team USA.
• Harman is originally from Santa Barbara, playing at Santa Barbara HS before college.
• Pepperdine was projected to finish second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, coming in behind UCLA.
• The Waves tied for second with USC, receiving four first place votes with the Trojans receiving just two.
• This season marks the 56th and final season with Firestone Fieldhouse as the home for Pepperdine Men's Volleyball
• Pepperdine will move into the Mountain at Mullin Park for the 2026-27 season.
• The Mountain is a new 3,600-seat arena that will give Pepperdine a state-of-the-art competition venue, complete with a 360-degree high-definition scoreboard, VIP and hospitality spaces, and custom team locker rooms.
• Outside of the United States, the Waves represent three other countries in Cuba, Serbia, and Switzerland.
• Andrej Polomac, a transfer from Purdue Fort-Wayne, is the sole Serbian on the squad, brings elite experience as a setter with an average of just under 9 assists per set last season.
• The Waves add even more international experience next year with two of the three commits coming from overseas, bringing another Serbian to Malibu as well as a middle blocker from the Czech Republic.
• In his fourth year at the helm, Winder is coming off his most successful season last year with a run to the final four in the NCAA tournament.
• Last season, Winder led the Waves to an MPSF title, the program's first since 2019.  
• As the ninth coach at the helm, Winder is an alum of the program himself, earning a National Title with Pepperdine in 2005.
 
 
SERIES HISTORY WITH UC MERCED
• Pepperdine has never played UC Merced.
 
 
SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
• Sitting at 3-11 with an 0-6 conference record, UC Merced has dropped MPSF matches to Stanford, Menlo, BYU, and Vanguard.
• Last time out, the Bobcats were swept in six straight sets on the road at Vanguard.
• Offensively, Mason Stokes leads the squad with an average of 2.67 kills per set. Daniel Del Grande leads in accuracy with .341.
•Defensively, Del Grande has the most blocks with 28 whileToby Miller averages the most digs per set at 1.46.
 
 
First serve Friday is set for 6 p.m. and first serve Saturday will be at 4 p.m. with senior day festivities taking place shortly beforehand. The games will be streamed on B1G+ (subscription required) with live stats available on pepperdinewaves.com.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE MEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Pepperdine men's volleyball boasts one of the richest histories in collegiate volleyball, with five NCAA National Championships. Four of those championships came under the direction of Hall of Fame coach Marv Dunphy who totaled 612 victories in 34 seasons at the helm. With 19 NCAA Appearances and 63 All-Americans, the program has consistently been a destination for top talent across the country. Under current head coach Jonathan Winder, the Waves reached the NCAA Final Four in his third season at the helm in 2025.
 
TICKETS
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