Pepperdine earns second win of the season – Volleyball news
The men’s volleyball squad of Pepperdine University, commonly referred to as the Waves, outclassed California State Northbridge team on Wednesday night.
Success graced them in four-set match, which ended up with the final score of 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 16-25, 26-24).
Outside hitter Josh Taylor and opposite Maurice Torres stole the show with their stellar feats and led Pepperdine to its second triumph of the season 2012. The Waves did not have a good start of the season as they lost the very first match to Lewis but the
team recovered from the shock of defeat by winning the next two matches. On the other hand, the Matadors of the Cal State suffered their third loss of the season.
Pepperdine’s Taylor and Torres added 22 points, apiece. Moreover, the setter Matt West did a wonderful job on the net and added 42 assists. Libero Ryan Plueger tackled the tricky long shots of the opponents. Matadors were supported by Julius Hoefer and Greg
Faulkner, who went into double-digit scores. Hoefer was the top scorer in Cal State team with 22 points.
The match was opened with a balanced action from both sides. However, the Waves gradually picked up pace with the delivery of commanding shots and powerful bump passes. They face a bit of resistance from the Matador middle blockers but did not stop hitting
the ball in gaps and corners.
As a result, Pepperdine strengthened its grip on the ball and kept the lead in hand. The opening set featured just one tie of scores and it was in the early few minutes of the game. Afterwards, the Waves led the score with good margin and finally closed
off the first set at 25-16.
The loss of opening set simply aggravated the Matadors. They answered back with an early 3-0 run and picked up lead. Meanwhile, Matt Pollock of Pepperdine hit the equaliser with a kill, which was his first out of seven in the match.
The exchange of long rallies started and both teams traded points until Waves’ top-gun Torres stepped up to the service line to hand out back-to-back aces, which helped Pepperdine to take a lead of two points, 11-9. Keeping the same momentum, Waves added
more points but the Matadors would fight back to a tie at 17-all. However, Pepperdine used the back row attack and retook the lead. Matadors trailed behind and suffered the loss of another set.
Pepperdine was in strong position after winning two sets in row but Cal State stunned them with third set win at 16-25. It was a nice comeback by the Matadors but they failed to stop the Waves from winning fourth set. Pepperdine claimed the final set with
narrow gap of two points (26-24) and won the match.
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