Pepperdine Drops USC in Semifinals

Better recount the votes.

Pepperdine, snubbed by the coaches of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation earlier in the day, snuffed USC, 4-15, 15-13, 15-12, 17-15, in an MPSF men’s volleyball tournament semifinal match on Thursday at Pepperdine.

Surprisingly, the all-MPSF team, released Thursday, did not have one Pepperdine player on the first team.

Honors or no honors, the No. 2-seeded Waves (22-4) are headed to the MPSF tournament championship match against UCLA on Saturday at Pepperdine.

“Right now, that’s all that matters,” said Pepperdine outside hitter Scott Wong, an All-American and an all-MPSF second-team selection. “You can have the [most valuable player] on your team and not win the championship. All six guys on our team are solid players. No bickering against each other or anything like that.”

Pepperdine was off to an abysmal start, quickly losing the first game.

But the Waves rebounded, overcoming deficits in the three final games.

The Waves also failed to fold in the fourth, despite USC fending off 15 match points while trailing, 14-12.

The No. 3-seeded Trojans (22-5) led, 15-14, but Pepperdine answered with three consecutive points to end the match.

“We just kept going at it,” said Wong, who had 15 kills. “We kept our confidence up. Big players make big plays at big times.”

Brook Billings had 28 kills and Eli Fairfield added 22 for USC.

Donny Killian had 16 kills in 20 attempts with no hitting errors for Pepperdine.

The winner of the championship match earns a trip to the NCAA Final Four, which starts Thursday.

Pepperdine split with UCLA this season, winning in five games at Pepperdine and losing in four at UCLA.

In another tournament semifinal:

UCLA def. Loyola Marymount, 15-8, 15-11, 13-15, 15-12--The Bruins had more depth and better blocking in a match at Pepperdine.

Eight players had at least seven kills for the No. 4-seeded Bruins (26-5), who reversed a loss to Loyola Marymount (12-12) earlier this month.