MPSF Volleyball Update, Jan. 28
Jan. 28, 2017 *PEPPERDINE 3, USC 2 (20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-16, 15-11)
Recap by Pepperdine
MALIBU, Calif.: -- The 9th-ranked Pepperdine men's volleyball team, led by David Wieczorek and Michael Wexter's offensive efforts, put USC under in a five-set MPSF match this Saturday afternoon in Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves split the first four sets 20-25, 25-21, 21-25 and 25-16, before prevailing with a big 15-11 final set victory.
In the fifth, both teams fought hard, amassing a 6-6 tie in the early stages. Seniors Joshua Stewart (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep/Pacific) and Mitchell Penning (St. Louis, Mo./Westminster Christian Academy) followed up with a block and the Waves forced an attack error to pull ahead. Back-to-back kills from redshirt-sophomore David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy) and sophomore Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West HS) extended Pepperdine's lead to 12-8 and at that point, the Waves felt the energy in Firestone.
Wieczorek continued propelling the Waves forward with an ace at the 13-11 mark and freshman Noah Dyer (San Clemente, Calif./Saddleback Valley Christian HS) and Clay Carr (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport Harbor HS) blocked Pepperdine into match-point territory. Wexter, put the set away and clinched the Waves' win with a solo block against the Trojan's biggest attacker of the night.
Wexter led the squad with 19 kills on a career-high .444 hitting percentage, adding one ace, nine digs and four blocks including one solo rejection.
Wieczorek was instrumental with 17 kills on a .536 success rate. He added a season-high four aces, one shy of his career-best effort, and produced two blocks, two digs and 34 successful service receptions.
Penning led the team with five blocks and added seven kills on a .357 attacking percentage. Stewart was the primary playmaker with 43 assists, and added eight digs, three blocks and a kill. Carr, Dyer and senior Kyle Suppes (Union City, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep) each had two blocks apiece. Dyer had four kills and Carr tabbed three.
After going point-for-point throughout the opening sequences to the 11-11 mark, the Trojans went on a 5-1 run to pull ahead 17-12. The opposition picked up another combination of points late in the set to go up 23-15. The Waves tacked on some kills to the leaderboard to close the gap to 20-24, but USC put down the final kill for the 1-0 set advantage in the match.
Pepperdine came out strong in the second set, amassing a 9-5 lead with back-to-back rejections from Penning with Wexter and Stewart respectively. USC stayed in the set, but the Waves maintained the advantaged until an 18-18 tie. The opposition took a short lead, but the home team overcame and with a strong service from senior Max States (Honolulu, Hawai'i/Solimar Academy), pulled ahead 21-20. Two kills from Penning in the final moments secured the Waves a 25-21 set win to tie the match.
After a 5-5 tie in the third set, the Trojans worked a gap over the home team to 14-11. Pepperdine came within two points at the 16-18 mark and then to a one-point deficit at the 21-22 mark, but USC added a few kills to close the set 25-22 and go up 2-1.
After a 7-7 tie in the do-or-die fourth set, the Waves unleashed, posting a 9-1 run over the Trojans to pull ahead. USC scattered some points in the following sequences but a big rejection from Carr, Stewart and Wieczorek put the Waves ahead by 10, 22-12. The Waves looked to close and a kill from Wexter and a service error from the opposition helped the home team to the 25-16 win to tie the match.
The Waves went on to win the fifth in commanding fashion to end the day with the second MPSF victory.
Next on the docket for the Waves is a trip to Long Beach State on February 2 as Pepperdine takes on the 49ers in Walter Pyramid at 7 p.m. Follow Pepperdine @PeppVolleyball on Twitter and Facebook for immediate updates and head to PepperdineWaves.com for recaps, results and more.
BYU 3, UC Irvine 0 (25-21, 25-18, 28-26)
Recap by BYU
PROVO, Utah -- Strong play from Jake Langlois and Ben Patch helped No. 3 BYU men's volleyball sweep No. 7 UC Irvine (25-21, 25-18, 28-26) in the second match between the two teams at the Smith Fieldhouse Saturday night. "We were a lot more confident and assertive from the service line, so I was really proud of the guys for doing that," BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "There was good energy as well. We stayed a lot more composed than we did last night. The guys wanted a redo. They felt like they let a few things slip through their fingers last night and they wanted this shot. I was excited for them." Langlois recorded 12 kills on a .500 clip and contributed four blocks while Patch added 12 kills and four digs. Leo Durkin tallied 32 assists and five digs during BYU's victory. The Cougars improved to 7-2 overall with the win (2-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) while UC Irvine fell to 7-3 (4-2 MPSF). Back-to-back service aces by Langlois and a kill by Patch got the Cougars rolling with a 6-4 lead to open the first set. BYU jumped up to a 13-7 advantage on three consecutive Anteater miscues to force UC Irvine to use its second timeout of the set. The Cougars maintained a comfortable margin as Brenden Sander and Price Jarman teamed up for a block to extend the Cougars' lead, 16-9. UC Irvine fought back to pull within two, 21-19, but a block by Sander and Joseph Grosh held off the Anteaters on the next point. BYU won the set 25-21 on a Tim Dobbert kill. UC Irvine notched the first point of the second set before the Cougars answered with a kill by Sander. The opponents traded points, but BYU pulled ahead 8-5 on a decisive Langlois kill. The Anteaters cut the deficit back to one, 14-13, before BYU extended its advantage to four on a pair of Jarman service aces. Patch and Langlois followed with kills to push BYU ahead 21-14. The Cougars fueled offensive momentum until the end of the set, taking a 25-18 victory on a UC Irvine attack error. The Anteaters weren't ready to give up as they rallied to match BYU's pace at the beginning of the third set. Both teams alternated service errors while neither team held more than a two-point margin. A Langlois kill gave the Cougars a 14-13 lead before Anteater kills contributed to an 18-15 UC Irvine advantage. BYU fought back to tie the score 20-20 and retake the lead on a Langlois kill. Patch and Langlois logged kills to send BYU ahead 23-21. The Anteaters tied the set again, 24-24, but the Cougars pulled out in the end with a 28-26 win on a UC Irvine attack error. The Cougars take on UCLA at the Smith Fieldhouse next Friday, Feb. 3, and Saturday, Feb. 4, with both matches beginning at 7 p.m. MST. Friday's match will be broadcast on BYUtv and simulcast on BYU Radio -- Sirius XM 143 while Saturday's match will be streamed live on TheW.tv.
OHIO STATE 3, Long Beach State 1 (25-22, 24-26, 25-21, 26-24)
Recap by LBSU
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- No. 4 Long Beach State dropped a four-set decision to top-ranked Ohio State by set scores of 22-25, 26-24, 21-25, 24-26 on Saturday night inside St. John's Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Despite out-blocking the Buckeyes, the Beach were unable to overcome 19 service errors as they dropped just their second match of the year. With the loss, the Beach fall to 7-2 overall, while the Buckeyes remain undefeated with a record of 9-0. Long Beach State hit .290 (48-17-107) in the contest as it was led by sophomore outside hitter TJ DeFalco and sophomore opposite Kyle Ensing. DeFalco posted 19 kills on 34 attempts with six errors for a .382 attack percentage, while Ensing added 13 kills on 39 attempts with four miscues for a .231 clip. Sophomore setter Josh Tuaniga dished out 38 assists, while Ensing led from the service line with three aces. Defensively, the Beach put up 8.0 total team blocks to the Buckeyes' 6.0 and were led by senior middle blocker Amir Lugo-Rodriguez who finished the night with four blocks (one solo and three assists). Senior libero Andrew Sato, along with Ensing, led the team with seven digs each. The Beach kept the match close as they never lost by more than four points in a set. They also forced the Buckeyes into 20 attack errors and took advantage of 16 Ohio State service miscues as well as half a dozen reception errors in the four-set contest. Ohio State controlled the first set as it took an early 6-2 lead and never looked back. Long Beach State managed to tie the game in the first few points, but was never able to capture a lead as the Buckeyes limited the Beach to just .067 (10-8-30) hitting in the frame. However, the 49ers refused to quit as they stayed on the Buckeyes' heels before dropping the set, 25-22. LBSU came out strong in the second set as it knocked down 13 kills and committed just four errors to out-hit Ohio State .375 to .321. The game was close throughout as the two teams exchanged leads six times and saw the score knotted on 13 occasions. The 49ers broke a 23-23 tie on a Buckeyes' service error which gave Long Beach State the set point. But an LBSU service error evened the score at 24-all. Ensing knocked down a kill to send it back to set point and DeFalco finished it off with an ace as the Beach collected a 26-24 win over the Buckeyes. The third set was hard-fought as well. Ohio State started things off with a 6-3 advantage and led the rest of the way. However, just as they did in the first set, the Beach never let up. The 49ers saw the Buckeyes lead by as many as seven points, but continued to chip away until they made it a four-point game (22-18) forcing Ohio State to take a timeout to regroup. Following the break in action, the Beach made it a three-point contest (23-20), but the Buckeyes were able to close it out and take the third set by a score of 25-21. Long Beach State battled in the fourth set as the Beach hit .400 in the frame with 13 kills on 25 attempts and just three errors. However, the Buckeyes refused to back down and turned in a 19-kill performance en route to hitting .516 (19-3-31) in the frame. Like the second set, the fourth saw 13 ties with the final coming at 24-24 as DeFalco knocked down his 19th kill of the match. Ohio State broke the final tie and notched a pair of kills to put the game and match away as the Buckeyes earned the 26-24 victory. Ohio State got a 20-kill performance from Miles Johnson who posted 22 kills on .395 (22-7-38) hitting to go along with three digs, two blocks and one ace. Nicolas Szerszen added 16 kills, eight digs, three assists, three aces and one block in the match, while Gabriel Domecus collected 14 digs, while Christy Blough tallied 49 assists. Long Beach State returns to the Walter Pyramid on Thursday, Feb. 2 when it hosts No. 9 Pepperdine at 7 p.m.
UC San Diego 3, Hope International 2 (23-25, 25-15, 20-25, 25-22, 16-14)
Recap Soon