MALIBU, Calif. -The UC San Diego men's volleyball team lost in straight sets to No. 3 Pepperdine 20-30, 22-30, 27-30 on Saturday night at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Tritons led most of the way in the third game, only to lose late against the Waves. Chris Sayers had one of his best matches with 15 kills and a .296 hitting efficiency. Jon Daze added eight kills and Brenden Bowe came off the bench to add six kills. John Parfill led the Waves with 12 kills. The loss drops UCSD to 1-19, 0-15 MPSF, while the Waves improve to 12-4, 12-4 MPSF.
In game one, the Tritons pulled within one point at 9-8 after a Sayers kill. After two sideouts, Pepperdine scored five straight points to lead 14-9. UCSD could not pull closer than four points the rest of the way as the Waves hit a blistering .500 in game one. Sayers had four kills in the game for UCSD, while Jon Daze and Garret Smith added two apiece. 30-20 Waves in game one.
In game two, Pepperdine raced to a 10-5 lead with eight kills on zero attack errors. UCSD closed to within 11-9 on a Daze kill. Trailing 15-10, UCSD scored three straight to pull within two and force the Waves into a timeout. Pepperdine then scored six of the next nine points to take a 21-16 lead and force UCSD to take a timeout. With UCSD within 24-20, Pepperdine put together a run to end the second game 30-22.
In game three, UCSD took control early, scoring seven of the first 10 points (three on Brenden Bowe kills) to take an early 7-3 lead. UCSD remained in front until the Waves tied it at 15-15. At that point, UCSD was outhitting Pepperdine .312 - .222 in the game. The Tritons continued to keep the Waves without a lead as UCSD led 18-16 on a Sayers kill. UCSD kept the pressure on Pepperdine, leading 23-21 before the Waves finally took their first lead of game three at 24-23 on two UCSD attack errors. UCSD remained close but could not take back the lead, falling in the final game 30-27.
UCSD is back in action when it hosts George Mason on Wednesday, March 15 at 7:00 p.m. in RIMAC Arena.
