Pepperdine Saves Starters, Which Finishes Its Chances

One day after nearly wearing out the accelerator, Pepperdine nearly broke its foot on the brakes.

Choosing safety instead of satisfaction, the Waves, mindful that conference play begins Tuesday, used their starters sporadically in championship pool play of the UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball tournament Saturday.

As a result, Pepperdine, ranked No. 3, finished sixth in the 24-team, two-day tournament.

The Waves, who won all five of their matches Friday, lost all three Saturday at the Events Center, never playing more than four starters in a match.

“I’m thinking we’re right where we want to be,” Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. “Nobody’s hurt and that’s a big part of this tournament.”

Opting not to follow the lead of BYU, which expended a serious amount of energy in winning the tournament last season, Pepperdine was thinking more about Cal State Northridge.

The Matadors, who finished 15th in the tournament, play at Pepperdine in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener Tuesday.

Freshman Scott Wong was the only starter to see time in the Waves’ first pool-play match of the day against Sacramento State, which won, 13-15, 15-10, 15-11.

The winner of the Waves’ subsequent match against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, ranked No. 6, would advance to play for third place.

Wong and outside hitter Peter Kodascy sat this one out, as the Waves lost a 13-10 lead in the first game en route to a 15-13, 15-5 loss.

All-American George Roumain came out early in the second game.

“We didn’t want anybody to be dog meat for Tuesday,” middle blocker Chris Jacobson said. “Me, [setter] J.J. [Riley] and George were thinking about that and then Marv kind of solidified it.”

All six Pepperdine starters sat out the fifth-place game against Long Beach State, which played without All-American middle blocker Gaby Amar and won, 15-3, 15-12.

For the 49ers, ranked No. 4, former Northridge middle blocker Sean Callahan had six kills. Matt Prosser, who went to Buena, had seven kills and three blocks.

The Matadors were without All-American Chad Strickland, who was nursing a sore shoulder for the second consecutive day, but went 2-1 in consolation play Saturday, despite adopting a starters-sit strategy, like Pepperdine.

“I don’t think [the Waves] have any idea what team they’re going to play Tuesday,” Northridge Coach Jeff Campbell said, alluding to his ever-changing lineup. “I don’t think I even know what team they’re going to be playing Tuesday.”

Campbell does know this--Strickland is expected back for the match.

“Pain or no pain, I’m playing,” Strickland said. “Gotta do it.”

Former Highland High middle blocker Ryan Millar collected 25 kills in four games for BYU.

Trevor Julian, a former outside hitter at Harvard-Westlake, was the best passer on the court for USC, which finished seventh.

Former Westlake High outside hitter Jason Lee started several matches for Loyola Marymount.

Outside hitter Dylan Herrick of Pacific, who played at Campbell Hall, had three aces and three kills Friday against Pepperdine.

Other athletes from the region who saw playing time included Josh Penrod of BYU (Royal High), Dan Fisher of Pacific (CS Northridge) and Rick Rauth of UC Santa Barbara (Harvard-Westlake).

Experimental scoring was used in the third-place and championship matches.

The matches were divided into two halves with best-of-three rally-scored games in each half.

In the championship match, UC Santa Barbara defeated Sacramento State.

Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne defeated Winnipeg for third place.