March 15, 2008
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Freshman Jeff Menzel blasted a match-high 19 kills but it wasn't enough as No. 5 Pepperdine swept No. 13 UC Santa Barbara Saturday in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball action at Robertson Gymnasium. Scores were 30-23, 30-25, and 35-33.
UCSB fell to 8-12 on the season and 6-10 in the MPSF while Pepperdine upped both its overall and league records to 9-8.
The Waves came out strong in the opening game and hit .444 to UCSB's .200. Pepperdine ended up hitting .327 for the match and the Gauchos finished at .278. At the net, Santa Barbara was out-blocked 12.5 to six.
The third game was a nail-biter. Pepperdine took an early 5-2 lead before the Gauchos tied it on three straight points due to a pair of hitting errors by the Waves and a kill by Mike Fisher. After trading points, another Fisher kill gave UCSB its first lead of the set at 7-6. The Gauchos pushed their lead to a game-high five points on two occasions before the Waves started to get back in it. A kill by Riecks got them back within one at 16-15, but UCSB held the lead until a block by Riecks and Tyler Jaynes tied the game at 29-29. Following a Gaucho timeout, the Waves took the lead on a kill by Paul Carroll. The teams traded points until Pepperdine put the match away on back-to-back kills by Carroll and J.D. Schleppenbach.
UCSB out-hit Pepperdine .333 to .283 in the final frame.
Carroll finished with 18 kills, five service aces, three digs, two blocks, and a match-high 24 points. Riecks totaled 14 kills while hitting .483 and Jaynes stymied the UCSB attack with 10 blocks.
Two other Gauchos hit double figures in kills as Theo Brunner had 12 and Mike Runkle amassed 10. Runkle and Ben Brockman each posted match-highs with nine digs. Brunner hit .421 and Menzel swung at .333 and registered 22 points. Freshman setter Vince DeVany had 46 assists.
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UCSB is off next week for finals and will return to action Mar. 25 when the Gauchos host non-conference opponent Cal Baptist (7 p.m.).
-- www.UCSBGauchos.com --
