LA JOLLA, Calif. - UC San Diego stormed out of the gate to win the first two sets over the nation's 10th-ranked team, but Pepperdine came all the way back to take a five-set Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball thriller Wednesday night at RIMAC Arena. Set scores were 21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-22 and 15-12.
In winning the opening game, the Tritons broke a string of 16 consecutive MPSF set losses dating back to a 3-1 home defeat to USC on Feb. 6. After taking the second frame as well, however, UCSD was ultimately unable to close out the match in order to end a streak of 36 straight MPSF losses going back to late in the 2014 season.
UCSD is now 4-15 overall and 0-14 in the MPSF. Pepperdine moves to 8-5 overall and 7-5 in league play following a second five-set road triumph in a row. The Waves had also won 3-2 at UC Irvine on Saturday night.
Both teams put four players in double-figure kills. For UCSD, junior outside hitter Ian Colbert struck for 19 kills, his collegiate high, for the third time this year. Sophomore opposite Tanner Syftestad was back in the starting lineup and came up big to the tune of a career-best 18 kills. He hit a perfect 1.000 in the initial stanza with seven kills to lead all players, on seven swings. Fellow sophomore Alec Flowers added 12 kills on a career-best .647 (12-1-17) hitting, with his blocking partner, redshirt sophomore Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS), compiling a career-high 11 kills. It was Zhu's first collegiate showing in double digits, and the first for Syftestad in over a month since producing 11 at Hawai'i on Jan. 29.
Ryan Blaich, a true freshman setter, earned just his second start, played the entire match while running the Triton offense effectively, and wound up with a career-and match-high 61 assists. It marked UCSD's top total since Mike Brunsting dished out 64 in another five-set affair on April 5, 2013, and fell just two short of this year's season high in the entire MPSF. Senior libero Tanner Howard had a match-high 19 digs to equal the best performance of his Triton days, from 2014.
The Tritons hung with the Waves despite missing starters Kirill Rudenko and Nathan Thalken. In fact, they lost Flowers late in the fourth after a tough landing. He would not return. The Waves, however, were without senior middle Tommy Carmody, the MPSF's leader in blocks per set. In his absence, Pepperdine still out-blocked UCSD, 14.5-6.0. The Tritons hit an efficient .306 (70-26-144), with the Waves at .379 (59-12-124). UCSD's 70 kills were a high for 2016.
Wednesday's first triple block, by Clay Carr, Matt Tarantino and David Wieczorek, gave Pepperdine the early 2-1 edge in set one. Zhu later tied the score at 9-9 with an ace, and his nice assist on a Syftestad kill inched UCSD ahead at 13-12. Zhu continued his solid play with back-to-back kills of his own, both off Blaich quick sets with the first a big one down the middle and the other from the right side, to give the Tritons a 15-13 advantage and force a Pepperdine timeout. Blaich rejected Tarantino for 19-15, but the Waves still pulled back to within a point at 19-18 after two straight combo blocks by Carr and Tarantino on Colbert around a UCSD timeout.
Two Pepperdine points in a row again left the Tritons with a single-tally cushion at 22-21, but after their final timeout, they scored the next three on a service error and kills by Calvin Manchenko and Luke McDonald. McDonald's came from a Manchenko assist after Colbert had kept the play alive with a great dig. A redshirt sophomore, Manchenko was making his first start of the year in place of Rudenko.
Set two began with two Colbert aces and a Flowers kill for 3-0. Midway through, UCSD had extended to 13-8 after back-to-back stuffs, first by Colbert and Flowers, and then Flowers and Syftestad. Following a timeout, Pepperdine notched the next three, punctuated by another triple block by Carr, Tarantino and Wieczorek. Up 23-20 near the end, Colbert leapt high for the kill and set point. Syftestad finished it.
Pepperdine controlled the third, getting a solo block by Tarantino and ace by Wieczorek for 16-10 and using a 4-0 run to pull a set back and ignite its comeback.
UCSD led for much of the fourth. Four straight points moved the Waves from 5-3 down to 7-5 up, but the Tritons quickly turned that around again with six in a row. Zhu had successive kills early in the sequence, the first just inside the line as he handled the overpass. Blaich also provided a clever dump for 10-7. UCSD held advantages at Pepperdine timeouts of 11-7 and 14-9, still at 18-14, and even later yet at 21-19 after answering a game-tying 4-0 run with a 3-1 stretch of its own. It was still just not meant to be, however, as the visitors managed six of the next seven.
That brought on the decider, and though by only thin margins, Pepperdine led for almost the entirety. The Waves struck first and 1-1 was the only level score. A third triple, this one from Wieczorek, Soren Dion-Kindem and Mitchell Penning, had them on top 8-6 as the teams changed sides, and the Tritons called for time down 12-9. Penning's kill finished it after two hours and 32 minutes.
Wieczorek led the Waves with a career-best 19 kills to share the match high with Colbert. Dion-Kindem provided a spark at setter as he had 19 assists off the bench.
Up next for UCSD is its home-and-home season series with No. 14 UC Irvine. The MPSF sides first square off at the Bren Events Center in Irvine on Friday night, March 4. They then meet again inside RIMAC Arena on Saturday, March 5. First serve for both contests is set for 7 p.m.
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