The miracle postseason run for the Pepperdine University men’s volleyball team fell one match short on Saturday when the Waves (17-11) lost in the national title match to Penn State, 3-1 (27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23), at the Bren Events Center in Irvine. The national championship was the second for the Nittany Lions. The squad finished the season with a 30-1 record
“Give all the credit to Penn State,” Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. “We had our chances. We snuck back and won game one, and in game two we had our opportunities. They made some good plays to win game two. Maybe if we win that, who knows what would have happened. But when it was tied they made the plays and that’s the way it goes. Give Penn State credit, they had the firepower and made the plays when they needed to.”
The young Pepperdine team, which was without one its top players (junior opposite Paul Carroll) for eight games due to injury, finished the regular season 13-10. But the Waves made a strong run through the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, winning three matches on the road to take the league title and earn a berth into the NCAA Championships.
Pepperdine continued its storybook postseason on Thursday with a 3-0 (30-26, 30-21, 30-26) win over Long Beach State in the national semifinals.
Three Waves were named to the NCAA All-Tournament team: senior setter Jonathan Winder, junior opposite Paul Carroll and junior outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach.
-Jonathan Friedman
Reports from Pepperdine Sports Information were used for this article