Waves volleyball wins MPSF Tournament opener
The Pepperdine University men’s volleyball team began its march toward a possible Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship as the Waves on Saturday defeated Cal State Northridge, 3-0 (30-24, 30-25, 30-28), in the conference tournament’s opening round.
Pepperdine (17-7) hit .319 as a team in front of a home crowd of 2,251 and was led by freshman Paul Carroll’s 17 kills on 30 swings and career-high nine blocks. Senior Andy Hein had seven errorless kills and junior John Parfitt had 11 kills.
The Waves will face UCLA in an MPSF Tournament semifinal match on Thursday in Irvine. If they win, they will compete against the winner of the Long Beach State/UC Irvine match on Saturday in the championship.
Also, this week, the Waves learned that Hein was named to the All-MPSF first team and sophomore Jonathan Winder was named to the third team. Parfitt and Carroll received honorable mentions.
This was Hein’s second consecutive appearance on the first team. The middle blocker leads the nation this season with a .510 hitting percentage.
Winder was also named to the third team last year. He is averaging 13.29 assists per game this season and has led the Waves to a .320 attack percentage in his second season as the Pepperdine setter.
Pepperdine tennis teams win conference titles
The Pepperdine men’s and women’s tennis teams won their respective West Coast Conference championships over the weekend. The conference title was the 16th consecutive for the men and the fourth in a row for the women.
The women (20-3) won their tournament with a 4-0 victory over Loyola Marymount in the championship match. Pepperdine will learn during a May 3 announcement on ESPNews at 5:30 p.m. who it will face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which begins on May 12.
The men (30-2) won their title with a 4-1 victory over UC San Diego in the championship match. They will also learn its NCAA fate on May 3.
Pepperdine wins 2 of 3 against UCSD
After losing to UC San Diego on Friday, the Pepperdine University baseball team came back to win games on Saturday and Sunday, including a 10-inning thriller on the final day.
The Waves (27-16, 7-5 in the WCC) trailed in Sunday’s game, 4-2, in the bottom of the 10th inning with two outs. UCSD pitcher Brett Hunter then walked three consecutive batters to load the bases. Pepperdine’s final hope was with junior left fielder Luke Salas. After two strikes, Salas hit the game-winning double down the right field line.
Salas, who hit .438 for the week in four games, was named West Coast Conference Player of the Week. In the four games, Salas scored three runs, hit a double and had 6 RBI.
On Friday, the Waves fell to UCSD, 6-1. Pepperdine tied the series on Saturday with a 4-2 victory as sophomore right-hander Barry Enright pitched eight innings and gave up just one earned run.
The Waves will host Portland this weekend in a three-game series that begins on Friday at 3 p.m.
-Jonathan Friedman