MVB Goes Down to Waves

Friday, February 23

Malibu, CA

7:00 PM

UCLA

14-4, 3-1MPSF

Pepperdine

9-3, 3-1MPSF

UCLA

Pepperdine

Photo by: Don Liebig/ASUCLA

MVB Goes Down to Waves

February 23, 2018 | Men's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (pdf)UCLA MVB Stats

The No. 2-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team dropped a straight set decision at No. 10 Pepperdine in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) match on Friday night in Malibu. Scores of the match were 21-25, 23-25, 20-25. The Waves outhit and became just the second team to out block the Bruins this season. UCLA falls to 14-4 on the season and 3-1 in MPSF play. Pepperdine captured its fifth straight win and improved to 9-3 and 3-1 in the league.

In set one, UCLA moved into a 10-8 lead after a kill by Dylan Missry. The Bruins upped the margin to 13-10 on a block by JT Hatch and Daenan Gyimah. Pepperdine answered with the next three points to even the score. After UCLA went up 17-16, the Waves ran off four straight to establish a 17-20 advantage. UCLA cut it to 19-20 after a Missry / Gyimah block. Pepperdine came right back to register the next two points and went on to take the set 21-25. UCLA hit -.036 with eight errors.

Pepperdine stormed out to a 1-6 lead to begin set two. UCLA came back behind the strong serve of freshman Sam Kobrine who ignited a 4-0 Bruin run to bring the Bruins even at 10-all. A Jake Arnitz kill put UCLA ahead 18-17. Back-to-back aces from Arnitz pushed UCLA in front 21-18. However, the Waves rebounded with four straight points to go up 21-22. Another Arnitz kill leveled the score at 23-all, but the Waves tallied the next two points on a kill and a Bruin error for a 23-25 win. Pepperdine hit .684 for the set. Arnitz finished with six kills.

The Waves spurted to an early 4-6 lead in set three. UCLA evened the score at 7-all after a Hatch kill only to see Pepperdine score five of the next seven points to regain the lead with a 9-12 advantage. UCLA closed to 12-13 after an Arnitz kill, but could not get the even. The Waves then surged into a 16-20 lead. Kills by Oliver Martin and Arnitz sliced the gap to three on separate occasions. Pepperdine closed out the Bruins 20-25. Arnitz totaled four kills in the set.

Arnitz came off the bench to top UCLA with 11 kills and two aces. Hatch finished with eight kills while hitting .500. Pepperdine outhit the Bruins with an opponent season-high of .455 to .203 for the match, with just three hitting errors in the last two sets. The Waves out blocked UCLA by a margin of 10.0, another opponent season-high, to 3.0 for the match. UCLA tallied a season-low 31 kills while dropping their third straight contest. The Bruins will continue their MPSF road swing next week with trips to Stanford (Mar. 1) and BYU (Mar. 3).