Pepperdine Victory Keeps Playoff Hopes Alive

It must be getting close to the playoffs.

But the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team isn’t about to acknowledge that.

The Waves inched closer to a berth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs with a 15-10, 15-12, 11-15, 15-11 victory over Brigham Young University Friday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

If the Waves win today’s rematch with BYU at Firestone Fieldhouse, they qualify for the MPSF playoffs and likely will play top-ranked Hawaii in the first round.

But there will not be any gazing into the MPSF crystal ball.

“We’re optimistic, but we need a lot of work,” said Pepperdine’s Kevin Barnett, who had a match-high 27 kills.

And there won’t be any inspirational meetings called by Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy.

“The players usually do that themselves,” said Dunphy, whose team reversed a four-match losing skid. “The longest I’ve ever talked is about two minutes.”

Pepperdine didn’t need any words of courage to win the first two games.

The Waves (13-10, 8-9 in MPSF play) ran out to a 5-0 lead in the first game and faced little resistance.

BYU (8-11, 7-9) hurt itself in the second game with poor passing.

Midway through the second game, Ingo Lindemann was second on the Cougars in kills with nine. But he was benched for the rest of the match partly because he had problems returning serves.

The Waves had no problems with their defense and had six blocks in the second game. Pepperdine finished with 19 blocks; BYU had 10.

“They’re one of the best blocking teams in the nation,” Dunphy said. “But we might have out-blocked them.”

Lindemann’s replacement, former Royal star Adam White, was sharp in the third game.

White threw down 11 kills as the Cougars rebounded.

White finished with 19 kills, second on the Cougars to Oswald Antonetti (25 kills).

But Pepperdine which opened the night a half-game behind BYU in the standings, wasn’t about to let the playoffs wash away.

The Waves shot out to 5-1 and 14-8 leads in the fourth game.

BYU fought off six game points and even pulled to within 14-11 before Pepperdine finished off the match.

And BYU finished in a funk.

“It’s kind of a bad time to do that, with playoffs right around the corner,” said former Highland High star Ryan Millar, who had 11 kills and 11 errors for the Cougars.

Barnett notched 20 or more kills for his eighth consecutive match.

“This was a big one,” Barnett said. “We need to keep being steady instead of going up and down.

“We had a couple of lapses and it kind of cost us. If we don’t make any errors, things go our way.”

Freshman George Roumain, who passed more Friday than in any other match this season, had 24 kills and three reception errors.

Teammate Peter Kodacsy added 18 kills.