MALIBU, Calif. - The UC San Diego men's volleyball team caused No. 11 Pepperdine considerable grief after the first stanza, but came up short in its first road test of 2016 Wednesday at Firestone Fieldhouse. Set scores were 25-16, 25-20 and 25-21.
With the loss, UCSD is 1-4 overall and 0-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). Pepperdine improved to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The Tritons compiled a season-high 8.0 total team blocks, but still allowed the Waves to hit .358 (35-11-67). The sides finished with 29 service errors together.
The match began with a triple block by the Tritons as Ian Colbert, Tanner Syftestad and Nathan Thalken combined to deny Colby Harriman. A pair of 3-0 mini-runs by the Waves around a service error, however, quickly made it 11-5 in favor of the hosts as UCSD called the first timeout of the night. Thalken and senior Kirill Rudenko later teamed up to again send back Harriman, but by then it was 15-7. Pepperdine would come up with a triple block of its own, from Mitchell Penning, Matt Tarantino and David Wieczorek, en route to the set victory.
Redshirt sophomores Calvin Manchenko and Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) both began the second frame after not starting the match, and provided a spark for UCSD. Colbert and Zhu roofed Harriman to put the Tritons on the board, down 2-1. An attack error and another triple stuff by Manchenko, Syftestad and Zhu gave UCSD the 3-2 edge early.
An emphatic combo block by Syftestad and Zhu as Harriman's tough night continued, levelled the score at 11-11. Back-to-back kills by Manchenko, who had four in the set alongside an ace, had UCSD up 17-15, but three successive Pepperdine points forced a timeout. Still tied as late as 19-19 for a 15th and final time after a Syftestad kill, the Tritons surrendered kills to Penning and Wieczorek, called their final timeout, and were unable to make up the difference.
"Tonight I felt like we got off to a bit of a slow start in set one," said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. "We definitely need to have better offensive production. We hit negative for that set (-.037). I thought in set two, we were in it. We picked up our blocking and had a couple key blocks. We put ourselves in position late in the game, but unfortunately were not able to get a key sideout that we needed."
Beginning the third set, Harriman, Penning and Tarantino contributed a triple block for a slim advantage at 2-1. Through several service errors by both sides, and three aces by the Waves, the home team took a 12-7 lead into the first timeout. UCSD got back to within three points on a number of occasions from there, and finally even to just one around a Pepperdine timeout, at 21-20, but couldn't get over the hump.
"We continued to battle in set three, but despite (Pepperdine's) 10 service errors, we were not able to point-score high enough or side out at a high-enough percentage to win," added Ring.
Manchenko entered the day with zero kills this season, and finished with a career-high nine. Colbert and Syftestad contributed six apiece, with Colbert adding four digs and Syftestad four blocks. Zhu got his hands to three blocks. Junior middle Shayne Beamer wound up with five kills on a .400 (5-1-10) attack rate.
"Shayne Beamer had a nice night for us, hitting .400," concluded Ring. "We just need more production out of our other middle, whoever that is going to be."
Wieczorek led all players with his 10 kills for Pepperdine on .421 (10-2-19) hitting, and three aces. Weston Barnes turned in a match-high eight digs. Setter Joshua Stewart had 31 assists, four digs, three blocks and two kills on two attempts.
UCSD continues a three-match road week at No. 8 Stanford (3-1, 1-1 MPSF) this Friday night, Jan. 22. First serve at Burnham Pavilion on campus is set for 7 p.m.
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