Courtesy of Pepperdine Waves Athletics
The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team dominated Pacific in the Alex G. Spanos Center this Thursday night, posting a .276 hitting percentage and 9.0 team blocks en route to the three-set sweep. The Waves’ first West Coast Conference win was earned with 25-16, 25-29 and 25-23 set scores.
Pepperdine (7-8, 1-2 WCC) began the night posting a .206 hitting percentage and rejecting 6.0 team blocks at the net, as opposed to Pacific’s (9-7, 3-1 WCC) .059 hitting percentage and 2.0 team blocks in the first set. The Tigers performed better in the second set with 13 kills on a .212 success rate, but the Waves third set .441 attack output after 19 kills triumphed for the straight-set win.
All night, the Waves collected 40 kills with only 13 errors on 98 swings for a .276 hitting percentage. The team also produced seven aces, 44 digs and 18 block assists.
Freshman Jasmine Gross (Portland, Ore./Jesuit HS) was unstoppable for Pepperdine with a 9-1-15 attack performance for a career-best .533 clip, while adding a team-high six blocks alongside junior Ashley Harris (Petaluma, Cailf./Casa Grande HS/Arizona). Harris also picked up five kills.
Sophomore Nikki Lyons (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas HS) led the Waves with a career-high three aces. She also posted seven digs and five kills all night. Fellow sophomore Heidi Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS) led the team with 19 assists and tabbed five kills on a .231 attack percentage and an ace.
Freshman Hannah Frohling (Edmond, Okla./Edmond North HS) was good for eight kills with only one error after 17 attempts for a .412 hitting percentage. Sophomore Tarah Wylie (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) added eight kills on a .333 hitting percentage and freshman libero Hana Lishman (Kailua, Hawai’i/Punahou School) led Pepperdine with 13 digs.
Junior Ashley Morgan (Anaheim Hills, Calif./Canyon HS) also amassed eight digs and sophomore Jenna Tunnell (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista HS) added seven assists.
To pen the match, a strong serving output by Morgan and four consecutive block assists, the first three from Gross and Harris and the fourth from Gross and Lyons, put the Waves ahead 4-0 for a quick advantage. Pepperdine continued the strong output to the 8-3 mark, before the Tigers started to battle back to a 7-8 score. The Waves then went on a17-8 run to close the set with a 25-16 win, fueled by a strong attack effort and aces from Dyer and freshman Jaiden Farr(Peterson, Utah/Morgan HS).
With the 1-0 advantage, the Tigers came out strong intent on evening the match. The Waves had other thoughts in mind, however, and after a 14-14 tie, Pepperdine put the work in. After a media timeout, Lyons smoked three consecutive service aces down onto Pacific’s court to go up 18-14. With the momentum on the Waves’ side, the team put the set away 25-20 for the 2-0 advantage.
The teams exchanged strong service outputs to begin the third set, and the team’s worked to the 7-7. Pepperdine then went on a 13-6 run to gain a 20-13 lead over Pacific. The Tigers refused to roll over that quickly, though, and went on a 10-3 run over the team’s own to tie the set 23-23. Directly after, however, a kill from Frohling and a block collaboration from Gross and Harris finished the match with a 25-23 final set win to complete the sweep.
Next, Pepperdine will close out the road trip up north with Saint Mary’s on Saturday at 1 p.m. Find live stats and stream here: http://gowav.es/2bT5hVh. Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter @WavesVolleyball for immediate updates, recaps and more.
Leave a Reply