Feb. 22, 2007
Pepperdine's attack controlled the match for the Waves as they defeated the Cardinal in three. The loss at Firestone Fieldhouse in Pepperdine drops the Cardinal to 1-15, 1-11 in conference play, as the Waves improve to 12-1, 10-1 in the MPSF.
Junior Matt Ceran led the Cardinal in kills with 10. Sophomore Jarod Keller added 8 digs on the match. However, Pepperdine's 13.5 team blocks limited Stanford to minus .043 hitting for the match.
Paul Carroll led all players in kills and accounted for two of the Waves' eight service aces in the match. J.D. Schleppenbach had nine kills to go along with a team-high three aces. Tom Hulse led the defensive efforts for Pepperdine with seven blocks.
Stanford led 3-0 to start the first game of the night, but their brief success against the top-ranked team was halted by a 16-4 Waves run. After the Waves' consecutive hitting errors, which narrowed the gap slightly for the Cardinal 23-13, Pepperdine closed out the game with a 7-1 run to win 14-30.
The Cardinal led 3-0 for the second straight game only to see Pepperdine answer with an 8-1 run. Stanford cut the deficit to one at 11-10 off of a kill by freshman Ed Howell. However a 7-1 run by the Waves and key hitting and blocking gave Pepperdine the edge over Stanford, as they took game two 22-30.
Pepperdine completed the sweep only trailing once in game three at 1-0. The Waves used a modest 3-0 run in building a five-point 15-10 lead. Hitting errors hurt the Cardinal as Pepperdine closed out the match 23-30.
Up next, the Cardinal will play tomorrow night at No. 14 USC at 7:00 pm.
No. 1 Pepperdine d. Stanford (30-14, 30-22, 30-23)