Match Stats
- No. 8 Pepperdine 3, UC San Diego 1 (21-25, 25-14, 25-12, 25-20)
- Pepperdine moves to 10-10, 8-9 MPSF; UC San Diego falls to 7-18, 3-13 MPSF
- Malibu, California
- Attendance: 1471
- Box Score
The No. 8 Pepperdine Waves edged UC San Diego in four sets Friday night in an evenly matched contest. The Waves outhit the Tritons .394 to .312, but the rest of the statistics were neck-in-neck.
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter David Wieczorek was the difference maker for Pepperdine, racking up a career-best 28 kills and hitting at a .591 clip, while also adding two aces and four digs. Sophomore outside Michael Wexter and senior middle blocker Mitchell Penning added eight kills apiece. Wexter also accounted for a team-best eight digs, while Penning chipped in a team-leading four blocks.
Junior opposite Tanner Syftestad led the Tritons with 17 kills, while hitting at a .483 clip and adding two blocks. Senior outside Ian Colbert registered 12 kills and six digs, while redshirt junior outside Calvin Manchenko managed eight kills. Defensively, redshirt junior middle Bryan Zhu put up a team-best three blocks, while freshman libero Ryan Lew pulled up nine digs.
UCSD hit .407 in Set 1 en route to a 25-21 win. The Tritons got help from a trio of blocks and two aces, building a 14-8 lead. Trailing 18-13, Pepperdine narrowed the gap to one at 20-19 with two kills and an ace by Weiczorek. Syftestad answered the call for UC San Diego, turning in two kills and an ace to close out a 5-1 set-ending rally.
Pepperdine turned the tables in Set 2, jumping ahead 16-8 as five different players chipped in kills, including three by Wieczorek. UCSD cut the margin to six at 17-11, but would get no closer as the Waves wrapped up the win with an 8-3 run.
The Waves turned a 4-1 deficit in Set 3 into a 9-5 lead as Wexter downed a trio of kills. The Tritons pulled within one three times, last at 13-12, but could not break through. Four Wieczorek kills and a handful of UC San Diego errors buoyed Pepperdine to a 24-19 advantage. A Triton service error clinched the set three points later.
Five Wieczorek putaways and a couple of blocks gave Pepperdine a 13-8 lead in Set 4. A 6-3 run, including a pair of Zhu kills kept the Tritons close, at a 16-14. The Waves answered with five of the next seven points to push ahead 21-16. UC San Diego scored three straight, including two Pepperdine miscues, but Wieczorek capped a 4-1 run with back-to-back kills to end the night.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy: UC Irvine Athletics
MALIBU, Calif.: – The 8th-ranked Pepperdine men’s volleyball team defeated UC San Diego in four sets at the RIMAC Arena on Friday night, posting 21-25, 25-14, 25-12 and 25-20 final set scores en route to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation win.
The Waves (10-10, 8-9 MPSF) tabbed a .394 hitting percentage with 57 kills and only 14 errors on 109 swings, compared to UC San Diego’s (7-18, 3-13 MPSF) .312 success rate after 51 kills and 17 errors on 109 attempts. Pepperdine amassed 6.0 team blocks, along with two aces and 34 digs, while the opposition was good for 5.5 team blocks, three aces and 28 digs on the night.
Redshirt-sophomore David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) led Pepperdine with a career-high 28 kills on another career-best .591 hitting output. He also led the team with two aces and added four digs and a block assist. His career-best effort previously stood at 26 kills on a .581 attack output, which occurred against Lewis and McKendree respectively in January. Senior Soren Dion-Kindem (Agoura Hills, Calif./Agoura HS) led the Waves with 44 assists and added six digs and two kills on a .667 success rate. Senior Mitchell Penning (St. Louis, Mo./Westminster Christian HS) was good for eight kills on a .500 attack output, along with a team-high four blocks including one solo rejection. Sophomore Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) posted a team-best eight digs, while producing eight kills and two block assists. Freshman Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Christian Academy) added five kills, six digs, three block assists and two assists in an all-around effort, and junior Weston Barnes (Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach HS) tallied five digs and four assists. Junior Clay Carr (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS) also tabbed five kills on a .667 output.
UC San Diego came out of the starting gate strong in the first set, posting a 14-8 lead to begin the match. The Waves eventually closed the gap within one-point on kills from Dyer, Carr and an ace by Wieczorek, but the Tritons continued to capitalize on opportunities en route to a 25-21 set win to pull ahead early.
After the shock to their senses, Pepperdine rallied back in the second set and commanded an early 10-5 lead fueled by smashes from Penning and Wexter and Wieczorek’s second ace of the night. The Waves continued to pound down on UCSD and three kills delivered by Wieczorek and a timely attack by Dion-Kindem propelled the Waves to a 20-12 advantage late in the set. A strong service output by senior Max States (Honolulu, Hawai’i/Solimar Academy) put the opposition off-kilter and back-to-back smashes from States in the back row and Penning from the middle, followed by a Wexter, Penning, Dyer block collaboration enhanced the Waves’ lead en route to an eventual 25-14 second set win.
With the match tied 1-1, Pepperdine continued to excel in the third set, working ahead to an 11-8 lead with the help of three Wexter smashes and a Wieczorek, Carr, Wexter block effort. The Waves continued to roll and fought through a late comeback effort by the opposition to win the third set 25-21 after kills from Dion-Kindem and Wieczorek.
In the fourth and final set, Pepperdine had the advantage from the beginning after Wieczorek found the floor on three separate occasions. The Malibu Roofing Company employed Penning and Dyer for a collaboration to put the Waves up 10-6, followed by a Penning solo job to keep lengthening the gap. Pepperdine littered smashes throughout the remainder of the set and in the final moments, Wieczorek posted his career-best 27th and 28th kills to win the final set 25-20 and the match 3-1.
Tomorrow, the Waves close out the regular season with a 7 p.m. match-up against No. 5 UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center. Follow Pepperdine @PeppVolleyball on Twitter and Facebook for immediate updates and head to PepperdineWaves.com for recaps, results and more.
Courtesy: UC San Diego Athletics
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Despite taking the opening game, the University of California San Diego dropped a 3-1 decision to No. 8 Pepperdine University in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men’s volleyball match at RIMAC Arena on Friday night. Scores were 21-25, 25-14, 25-21 and 25-20.
With the loss, UCSD fell to 7-18 overall and 3-14 in the MPSF. The Tritons had been eliminated from MPSF Tournament contention last Saturday. Pepperdine moved to an even 10-10 overall and 8-9 in league play. The Waves clinched a tourney berth on Saturday, and are assured of an MPSF road quarterfinal next Saturday, April 15. UCSD was beaten in straight sets in this season’s first meeting between the sides, in Malibu just eight days prior on March 30.
Junior opposite Tanner Syftestad led the Tritons with 17 kills before having to exit late in game three due to injury after landing on his opponent from an attack attempt. Senior outside hitter and fellow tri-captain Ian Colbert joined him in double figures with 12 kills.
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter David Wieczorek was largely unstoppable for Pepperdine, leading all players with 28 kills on a .591 (28-2-44) hitting percentage.
Colbert got UCSD’s opening-set victory off on a bang as his solo denial of Michael Wexter gave his side the early 2-1 edge. Calvin Manchenko, Milosh Stojcic and Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo) teamed up for a triple block of Noah Dyer for a 9-6 lead. Stojcic then clicked his serve off the tape and down, before a second successive service ace for the junior setter made it 12-7 and forced the night’s first timeout out of legendary Pepperdine head coach Marv Dunphy.
The Waves closed to within three at 15-12, but coming out of UCSD’s initial timeout, Zhu put down the huge kill from a Stojcic set. The Tritons went up 20-16 on a kill by senior middle blocker Shayne Beamer before the visitors whittled that deficit back down to a single tally at 20-19, but UCSD was able to hold it together, and Syftestad’s lone ace sealed it on the first set point.
The second game was all Pepperdine, as it trotted out to leads of 4-1 and 9-4 ahead of the first timeout, and never looked back. The Waves got a triple block of their own late, by Dyer, Wexter and Mitchell Penning, for 23-12. They hit .722 (14-1-18).
The Tritons scored four of the first five points in the third, three on Wave attack errors, but surrendered the next five, including another triple stuff for a 4-4 tie by Wexter, Wieczorek and Clay Carr. A Syftestad kill preceded three more points by Pepperdine and a timeout. Though UCSD pulled to within one at 11-10, 12-11 and 13-12, it was never able to level matters again.
The fourth, like the third, was also close throughout, but with the Tritons always chasing after a pair of tie scores at 2-2 and 4-4. Two last kills by Wieczorek ended it.
Syftestad hit .483 (17-3-29). Stojcic finished with 42 assists, five digs, two aces, two block assists and one kill. Freshman libero Ryan Lew collected a match-high nine digs. Colbert added six digs. Manchenko, a senior outside hitter, contributed a season-high eight kills in a third straight start, with two digs, a block and an assist.
UC San Diego plays its 2017 home finale on Senior Night against No. 9 Stanford on Saturday, April 8. First serve at RIMAC Arena is slated for 7 p.m. after four outstanding Triton student-athletes are recognized. The match will also mark the final contest of UCSD’s 25-year MPSF history, before the Tritons join the newly-formed Big West Conference as an associate member next January.
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