March 31, 2007
NO. 2 UC IRVINE FALLS TO NO. 1 PEPPERDINE (Box)
Malibu, Calif. -- No. 1 Pepperdine needed five games to defeat No. 2 UC Irvine, 3-2 (28-30, 30-20, 30-25, 22-30, 15-13) at the Firestone Fieldhouse Saturday.
It was a balanced UC Irvine attack as Matt Webber and Jayson Jablonsky each had 19 kills, while David Smith added 14 kills and Taylor Wilson had 11 kills. Aaron Harrell posted nine kills. Smith led the team with seven block assists. Libero Brent Asuka led all players with 10 digs. Setter Brian Thornton tallied 65 assists, the second most this season for the senior, and had a match-high two solo blocks to go with five digs.
UCI lead 20-17 in game one before the Waves tied the score at 20-20 on a kill and two blocks. Following a UCI timeout, the Anteaters scored the next three on a Pepperdine service miscue followed by a kill by Harrell and a block by Harrell and Webber. A Carroll kill for Pepperdine ended the UCI scoring, 23-21. The Waves narrowed the score to 28-27 forcing another UCI timeout, but Webber responded with a kill to give the Anteaters game point. A Schleppenbach kill delayed the game until Harrell pounded a kill in the middle to give UCI the first set, 30-28.
Game two was all Pepperdine taking the second set, 30-20. The teams were tied 5-5 before Pepperdine out-scored UCI 4-1 to take the 9-6 advantage and never looked back. The Waves hit a blistering .577 (17-2-26), while the Anteaters committed six service errors.
All calls went Pepperdine's way as the Waves took the third game, 30-25. Pepperdine led 23-18 before UCI made a 4-1 run to close to 24-22. The Anteaters appeared to have another point but a blocking error was called to give the Waves the 25-22 cushion. Pepperdine, who would end the game out-scoring UCI 5-3, recorded seven blocks in the stanza.
The Anteaters hit .481 in game four while the Waves hit just .120. UCI opened up a 11-7 lead and pushed the score to 20-12 before going to 30-22 victory.
UCI was its own worst enemy to begin the final game as the Waves scored their first five points on two service errors and three blocks. The Anteaters rallied back to take the 8-7 lead, but Pepperdine knotted the score at 8-8. The teams traded points until 11-11 when Pepperdine took a 13-11 lead on a pair of kills. Jablonsky had a kill before a service error to make it 14-12. A David Smith kill was followed by another service error to end the match. UCI had six of its 25 service errors in game five, including the final three tosses. Pepperdine hit just .167 in the final game.
The Anteaters snap a 10-match winning streak and go to 22-4 overall and 15-4 in the MPSF. Pepperdine wins its 18th consecutive and improves to 21-1 overall and 17-1 in league action.
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