UC Santa Barbara Takes the Fifth and Beats Pepperdine

Pepperdine had several opportunities to win its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball opener Thursday night against UC Santa Barbara, but the Waves couldn’t come through in close situations.

The result was a 12-15, 15-6, 15-13, 16-17, 15-13 home loss to the third-ranked Gauchos.

Trailing, two games to one, the ninth-ranked Waves (4-2) appeared to be in the process of making a comeback after winning the close fourth game and going ahead, 4-1, in the final game.

But after trailing throughout that last game, Santa Barbara (1-1) rallied to tie the score, 13-13, before putting away the final two points.

“We just didn’t take care of the ball the way we should have,” Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. “And they came up with the good serves.”

Donny Harris, a junior outside hitter from La Canada High, had 50 kills for Santa Barbara. Kevin Barnett had 45 for Pepperdine.

Santa Barbara Coach Ken Preston said the key to his team’s victory was containing Barnett in the fifth game.

“We’re lucky to come out of here with a win,” he said. “We just couldn’t stop Barnett till the end. He’s a great player.”

The first game was close until Pepperdine, trailing, 12-10, scored the final five points to take a one-game lead.

Santa Barbara rolled to a 9-1 lead in the second game and the Waves never threatened to slash the deficit.

Pepperdine scored four consecutive points to come within 9-5, but managed to record just one point after that, an ace by middle blocker John Bowling.

The third game was another close one, with numerous lead changes and five ties.

At 10-10, the Gauchos went on a four-point run and, at 14-10, Pepperdine held off nine game points. The Waves managed to come within 14-13, but couldn’t score after that. Santa Barbara’s Amaury Velasco blocked Barnett’s shot to close out the game.

The Waves went ahead, 8-2, in the fourth game, but the Gauchos tied it, 11-11, and went on to take a 13-12 lead.

The teams were tied four times after that and Santa Barbara fought off six Pepperdine game points before finally losing when Barnett smacked a cross-court shot the Gauchos couldn’t return.

Peter Kodacsy had 23 kills for Pepperdine and Chris Jacobson added 15.