#2 BYU Offense Puts #4 Waves Under at Home

Colby Harriman (6) (photo by Martin A. Folb), Recap courtesy of Pepperdine

Colby Harriman led both sides of the net with 12 kills.

MALIBU, Calif. – The No. 4 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team was felled in three sets by No. 2 BYU in Firestone Fieldhouse on Thursday night for the first of the final two regular season Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches.

The Cougars (20-5, 10-1 MPSF) posted a strong offensive throughout the match to mark 25-20, 25-17 and 25-14 set scores over the Waves (14-7, 7-4 MPSF).

BIG WAVES

Colby Harriman (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit HS): 12 kills, 5 digs

Alex Harthaller (Innsbruck, Austria/Akademischeg Gymnasium/IPFW): 8 kills, 2 aces, 3 digs, 2 blocks (1 solo)

Robert Mullahey (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS): 27 assists, 3 digs

David Wieczorek (Chicago, Ill./Loyola Academy): 2 aces, 6 digs, 3 kills

Michael Wexter (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West HS): 4 kills, 1 block (solo)

Max Chamberlain (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs HS): 3 kills, 1.000 hitting %, 1 block

WAVES VS. COUGARS

Pepperdine posted 31 kills on a .214 clip, while BYU marked 33 kills on a .400 success rate. The opposition put down 11 aces and led with 17 digs and 7.5 team blocks, while the Waves added four aces, 22 digs and 3.5 team blocks in the match.

PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET

Set K-E-TA (Pct)

1. 9-6-23 (.130)

2. 13-5-27 (.296)

3. 9-5-20 (.200)

TOTAL: 31-16-70 (.214)

BYU ATTACK BY SET

Set K-E-TA (Pct)

1. 9-4-19 (.263)

2. 13-2-26 (.423)

3. 11-1-20 (.500)

TOTAL: 33-7-65 (.400)

NOTABLES

In the Waves’ 21 matches, David Wieczorek has led the team in kills on 14 occasions.

Pepperdine has gone 8-6 against ranked teams, including three top-five upsets this season with a sweep over #2 UCLA and four-set wins over #3 Hawai’i and #4 UC Irvine.

The Waves have posted an 11-0 record when leading in hitting percentage and 10-1 when leading in kills and/or blocks throughout the match.

David Wieczorek leads the conference in points/set, aces/set and kills/set and is second in hitting percentage.

Robert Mullahey and Max Chamberlain rank in the top-five in two separate statistical categories, with Mullahey averaging 10.46 assists/set and Chamberlain posting 1.27 blocks/set this season.

PLAY-BY-PLAY

Each side came out strong in the first set, working towards a 13-13 tied score before BYU went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead with a strong service output. After a timeout, the Waves countered with a 3-1 run of the team’s own to close the gap. Pepperdine would fall short, though, as the Cougars shut the set down with a 25-20 set win. The opposition worked off the momentum of the first set win to take an early lead in the second. After pulling ahead 15-9, the energy was on the other side of the net and more strong services pushed the Cougars to a 25-17 set win.

With the match on the line, the Waves came out firing. After a few tied scores, BYU made the adjustments needed to pull away and ended the match with a 25-14 set win.

NEXT UP

Next, the stay in Malibu to host Stanford for senior day on April 7 at 5 p.m. Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @PeppVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @PepperdineWaves. Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.