Match Stats
- #5 UC Irvine defeats #8 Pepperdine in 5 games (27-29, 25-19, 25-18, 21-15, 17-15)
- UCI moves up to 19-6 (13-5 in MPSF) and Pepperdine falls to 10-11 (8-10 MPSF)
- Bren Center Irvine, California
- Attendance: 1,061
- Match Stats
Pepperdine finished the night with .256 hitting percentage, 53 kills, 3 aces and 12 team blocks while UCI had a .354 hitting percentage, 74 kills, 7 aces, and 9 team blocks.
With an 8 in a row win streak, UCI finished 4th in MPSF after defeating Pepperdine during their senior night. Senior Michael Saeta hit a school record for aces with a total of 62 in a season with serving up 4 aces in the match. Saeta also had 60 assists, 7 kills, and 8 digs. Outside hitters Tamir Hershko and junior Aaron Koubi had 21 kills together and libero Dillon Hoffman had a career-high
Pepperdine senior David Wiezorek lead the Waves with 19 kills, 3 blocks, and 8 digs while Soren Dion-Kindem had his 5th career double-double with 46 assists and 10 digs as well as 4 blocks and 2 kills.
Press Releases
Courtesy of: UCI Athletics
IRVINE, Calif. – No. 5 UC Irvine improved to 8-0 in five set matches with a 3-2 victory (27-29, 25-19, 25-18, 21-25, 17-15) over No. 8 Pepperdine on Senior Night at the Bren Events Center.
UCI closed out the regular season with a 13-5 MPSF record, going to 19-6 overall. The Anteaters, who extended their winning streak to eight in a row, finished fourth in the MPSF and will host fifth-seed UCLA Sat. (Apr. 15) at the Bren Events Center in a quarterfinal match.
Senior setter Michael Saeta fired four aces and set a new school record for aces in a season at UCI with 62. The lefty bettered Carson Clark’s 2012 mark of 61. Saeta also recorded seven kills, 60 set assists and eight digs in the win.
UCI outside hitters carried the offensive load, led by senior Tamir Hershko (.421) and junior Aaron Koubi (.400) with 21 kills. Hershko added three aces, while Koubi had three block assists. Senior Thomas Hodges totaled 17 kills and senior libero Dillon Hoffman tied his career-high with a match-high 19 digs. Middle blocker Scott Stadick pitched in five kills and a match-best six total blocks and middle blocker Matthew Youngren added three kills and three blocks.
David Wieczorek led Pepperdine with 19 kills and eight digs. Noah Dyer had 10 kills and Soren Dion-Kindem had 46 set assists, 10 digs and four total blocks.
In the first set, Pepperdine started with a quick 3-0 advantage and continued to lead 19-16 before UCI came back with the next four points, a kill and three consecutive aces by Tamir Hershko to take a 20-19 lead. Back-to-back UCI attack errors moved the Waves back in front 21-20. An Aaron Koubi kill and a Pepperdine attack that went wide gave UCI the 22-21 advantage. The teams would continue to trade points until a UCI service error was followed by a kill by David Wieczorek to give the Waves the set, 29-27.
UCI evened the match with a 25-19 win in the second set. A 7-1 run which included back-to-back aces by Michael Saeta gave UCI control of the set, 15-9. Hershko lead UCI with six kills in the set.
The Anteaters had three early blocks as UCI jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the third set, hitting .800 (4-0-5) to Pepperdine’s -.333 (2-5-9) forcing a Wave timeout. Consecutive kills by Thomas Hodges and Hershko pushed the advantage to 19-13 and the Anteaters would go on to win the set, 25-18 on a block by Scott Stadick and Saeta.
In a closely contested fourth set, Pepperdine would sneak ahead 16-13 on a kill by Colby Harriman and a UCI attack error. UCI would get as close as one the rest of the way with the Waves winning 25-21.
UCI would lead 12-10 on a Hershko kill in the fifth set, before Pepperdine had a kill and back-to-back blocks to go in front 13-12. The teams would side-out until a Wave attack error and two Hodges kills kept the Anteaters perfect in five-set matches, 17-15.
Courtesy of: Pepperdine Athletics
IRVINE, Calif.: – The 8th-ranked Pepperdine men’s volleyball team posted a valiant effort against 5th-ranked UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center on Saturday night, falling in five-sets to end the 2017 regular season with a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation loss.
The Waves (10-11, 8-10 MPSF) won the first set 29-27 before dropping the next two 19-25 and 18-25. After securing a 25-21 set four win to send the match to the fifth, but were unable to close the door on UC Irvine (19-6, 13-5 MPSF) as the Anteaters amassed a 17-15 set five win to end the night.
Pepperdine amassed a .256 hitting percentage on the night with 53 kills, three aces and 12.0 team blocks, compared to UC Irvine’s .354 success rate with 74 kills, seven aces and 9.0 team blocks.
With the match tied 2-2, the opposition started the fifth set strong with a 7-3 lead early on. The Waves rallied back and brought the deficit to one-point at the 9-8 mark with a kill from redshirt-sophomore David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy), an ace from senior Mitchell Penning (St. Louis, Mo./Westminster Christian HS) and a block collaboration from junior Clay Carr (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS) and Wieczorek.
Pepperdine tied the set at 13’s and had the match-point advantage at the 14-13 mark, but a strong attack by the Anteaters flipped the switch and eventually the home team garnered the 17-15 set win to shut the Waves down 3-2 on the night.
Wieczorek led the Waves with 19 kills on a .256 success rate, while adding three blocks including one solo and eight digs. Senior Soren Dion-Kindem (Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura HS) also tabbed his fifth career double-double with 46 assists and 10 digs, while also amassing four blocks including one solo rejection and two kills.
Carr posted a team-high five block assists and Penning was good for eight kills on a solid .636 hitting percentage, along with one ace and four blocks including a solo block.
Sophomore Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) tabbed eight kills, four digs and one ace, and freshman Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Christian Academy) tallied 10 kills on a .360 clip with six digs and four block assists.
The Waves jumped out of the starting gate early in set one, picking up a 7-3 lead and maintaining an advantage throughout until the final moments of the set. The opposition tied things up 19-19 and each side continued to exchanged points en route to a 25-25 tie to send the set to extra points. After the 27-27 mark, a Eater service error followed by a smash from Wieczorek put the Waves up 1-0 on the day.
UC Irvine bounced back in sets two and three to pick up 25-19 and 25-18 set wins for the lead.
With the match on the line in the fourth, the Waves came out strong offensively, amassing multiple kills from Wieczorek and junior Colby Harriman (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS) helped the Waves pull ahead 18-15. With the momentum on the Waves side, Pepperdine continued to pound down on the opposition with smashes from Penning, Dyer and Wieczorek to win the set 25-21 and send the match to the fifth.
After ending regular season tonight, the Waves will head into postseason with the MPSF quarterfinal match-up set for April 15 against No. 4 Hawai’i. Find official start times on PepperdineWaves.com. Follow Pepperdine @PeppVolleyball on Twitter and Facebook for immediate updates and head to PepperdineWaves.com for recaps, results and more
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