It’s almost time for Senior Night in Provo, but before we get there, the Cougars entertain the Pepperdine Waves. Pepperdine come in to tonight looking for a big bounce-back after a….well….not sure I can call it anything but embarrassing….loss to USC last week. It’s a tall order to come into the Smith Field House and do it, but it bears pointing out that Pepperdine did defeat BYU at Pepperdine earlier this season. The Waves are currently tied for fourth in the MPSF, hanging on by a thread to a first-round hosting spot in the MPSF tournament.
Much like the Cal Baptist/BYU match a couple weeks back, the teams wore the same colors for this match, white jerseys with blue shorts (libero blue). Whatever happened to road darks?
BYU went up two first at 4-2 with a couple of nice plays from middle blocker Russ Lavaja, deflecting a Josh Taylor swing such that the back row easily dug it and then obliterating the middle attack. Josue Rivera‘s left-side swing found hands on the 5-3 rally to put the Cougars ahead three points. Ben Patch‘s third kill on as many swings made it 7-3 BYU, and Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy expended a timeout.
Parker Kalmbach got the Waves the sideout coming out of the timeout, but then gave the point right back on service, at 8-4. Pepperdine’s star outside Maurice Torres found only the net on his next swing, putting BYU ahead five, and then a double block for Lavaja and Hatch made it 10-4 Cougars. Scott Rhein‘s wide hit on 13-7 put the Cougars ahead seven, marking them well in control. Torres’ hitting error on the next ball made it 15-7, at the media timeout. The Waves were hitting minus as a team to this point, to over. 700 for the Cougars. Tells the tale.
BYU’s block coming back from the timeout was just immaculate, tracking hits on both sides of the net and coming up with a scoring triple-block on the right side to go up 9. A solo block for Michael Hatch made it a 10-point deficit. On the 17-7 rally, BYU came up with another block, and the up referee very nearly ruled in their point (he sorta flinched a little) before he did point to Pepperdine, ruling the ball out. The Waves then came up with three straight to close to within 17-10, with Torres’ second service ace of the set prompting BYU’s timeout. He came up with another strong serve after the timeout, but the Cougars came up with picture-perfect service reception to set up Rivera’s kill. The Waves made no inroads into the deficit, BYU taking the first 25-15. A service ace for Boyce, bearing mention as it was just his 4th of the season, first got it to set point for the Cougars at 24-14.
BYU hit .615 in the first set, nine kills and one error, while Pepperdine hit triple-zeroes (nine of each). Hay-soose! But it’s 0-0 again to start the 2nd.
Pepperdine took the early advantage in set 2 on a gruesome play, as the Waves tracked down what looked to be a kill only to send over a free ball — which wasn’t returned. BYU just as quickly came even, and it was sideout after sideout for a while. Ties occurred at every numeral score from 2 through 13. At 10-all, Taylor Sander appeared to have an emphatic ‘slam dunk’ kill for the Cougars, but it was overruled by the up ref, calling a lift. Afterward came an all the more emphatic kill, called clean this time. A right-side double block broke the long string of sideouts to give BYU a 15-13 lead at the media timeout.
BYU went up 16-13 coming out of the timeout, but back-to-back kills for Torres brought the Waves back within a point. The Waves had a chance to tie the set at 18, multiple chances in fact, but the Cougars put the rally away with a left-side kill for Rivera to make it 19-17 BYU. Pepperdine immediately called time there. Patch’s serve coming back from the timeout was a beaut, forcing the overpass, but Lavaja’s smash landed wide. He redeemed himself on the next ball, to retain BYU’s 2-point lead. After a few more sideouts, Sander’s long hit knotted the set at 20, prompting the Cougars’ timeout.
On the first ball after the timeout, BYU were nearly caught with their hands in the cookie jar, as they huddled up to celebrate a point before the ball was actually dead. Pepperdine nearly returned it, their last desperate lunge hitting the top of the net and falling back. On the next rally, BYU put the ball away after a relatively rare dig from Ben Patch, prompting Pepperdine’s second timeout. The Waves came out of that timeout with a 2-point min-run of their own, including a ball that nearly destroyed the BYUTV broadcast position when Rivera, Boyce, and Patch ran after it. At 22-all, the final timeout of the set was expended.
And then the BYU webcast bizarrely went to spot while the match was ongoing. It came back with the set tied at 23’s. Pepperdine got to set point first and converted by rejected Patch with a double-block. BYU hit .333 for the second set, but Pepperdine came back with a vengeance to hit .464. The block to seal set 2 was their first of the night.
The beginning to set 3 was another long stretch of sideouts. Pepperdine went up 5-3 on a triple-block up the middle against Sander. And it just seemed like a lot of the energy that was in the Fieldhouse earlier in the night was kind of sapped. A big kill for Rivera kind of got the fans back into it, but then an even bigger one for Josh Taylor silenced them anew. Torres’ 12th kill of the night was his first of the set, on the rally ending 8-5 for the Waves, giving them their largest lead of the night. After several sideouts, BYU looked pretty out of sorts on the 11-8 rally, getting bailed out on a hitting error by Torres straight into the net. Patch then brought the Cougars back within 1, bailing out Boyce on kind of an iffy set to smash home the kill ending 11-10. Pepperdine got the two points back, last with Taylor silencing Boyce on a joust to put the Waves ahead 13-10 at BYU’s timeout.
The Waves rejected Patch on the right side to go up four at 14-10, but after that they got the run they’d been needing to close back to 14-13, and Pepperdine’s timeout. When BYU tied the set at 15, the noise level really started to pick up. Even Taylor’s big kill through the seam in the block to make it 17-15 Pepperdine didn’t really hush them. The Cougars then went ahead at 18-17 before the Waves evened it again. On the rally ending 19-all, Torres played some terrific defense to track down a ball well off the court and legally return it. Pepperdine came up with a block on BYU’s subsequent attack. It was ruled out by the flagger, but the up ref overruled him to give the point to Pepperdine. At 20-19, though, Torres’ 8th hitting error of the match gave BYU a potentially crucial 2-point lead late at 21-19, and forced Pepperdine’s last timeout.
22-20 was another really great rally, ending with a kill from Patch after he earlier came up with a sprawling pancake dig. His subsequent serve went straight into the net, clearly dismaying him. At 23-21, Pepperdine’s Scott Rhein went back to serve, and came up with a pitch-perfect jump float that totally ate up Sander, bringing Pepperdine back within a point at BYU’s final timeout. But BOOM! went the dynamite for Patch on the first ball back to bring BYU to set point. On Rivera’s serve at 24-22, BYU were called for a foot fault, negating Steve Rindfleisch‘s tactical substitution at the net. Pepperdine turned to a serving sub Evan Dean, but after a long rally Sander came up with the set-winning kill to put the Cougars up 2-1.
After a few early sideouts, BYU went ahead first in the 4th at 5-3, edging further ahead at 7-4. This time it was Pepperdine who started to look a little flat and out of it, as they were just a step or so behind on most rallies. Case in point — on the 9-6 rally, BYU’s offense sort of fell apart, with Lavaja sending over a one-handed free ball, over his shoulder. And it just plain fell in. Inexplicable. Timeout Pepperdine came with them trailing 10-6. BYU’s run continued with a kill for Patch to make it 11-6 before the Waves got the sideout. The Cougars went up six at 14-8 at the end of a long rally, with Sander putting it away off the block and out. Rhein’s hitting error made it 15-8, and Pepperdine went to a sub to slow the pace, with Beau Vandeweghe entering the match. It didn’t ice Josue Rivera at the service line,though, with an ace to double the Cougars up on the Waves. The run continued with a left-side hitting error on an open net to make it 17-8 before the Waves finally sided out.
It was by and large sideout volleyball from there, making it damage done.
#1 BYU d. #5 Pepperdine (25-15, 23-25, 25-23, 25-18)
Solid volleyball played by both teams. The middle two sets both could have gone either way, and it was just a couple of nice runs in 1 and 4 that tilted them the way of the Cougars. This is not to say Pepperdine were especially close to victory, because they really weren’t, but they were hanging with BYU most of the way. The way these two teams look to line up in the MPSF tournament, they may wind up as semifinal opponents. That match would figure to be back here in the Smith Field House, so you’d have to favor BYU again, but it’s not quite an obvious call.
Sander, Patch, and Rivera all hit extremely well in this match, all with double-digit kills and the lowest efficiency among them was Patch’s .435. The middles, Lavaja and Hatch, added 13 kills on .522 efficiency. Torres led the Waves with 17 kills, tied with Sander for match-high, but his 9 hitting errors left his efficiency at a pretty meager .235. Josh Taylor hit .476 on the night with 12 kills, but on the whole the Waves just had too many hitting errors, 24 to just 9 for the Cougars.
Saturday is Senior Night for BYU, as they’ll play host to USC in the final regular season match at the Smith Field House this season. Pepperdine travel to Riverside to face Cal Baptist Saturday night.
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