Waves Earn Ticket to Final

What a difference a few months make. Just ask Pepperdine setter John Mayer.

Mayer had 44 assists and added 11 digs Thursday night in directing the top-ranked Waves to a sweep of fifth-ranked UC Irvine in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball tournament at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The 30-26, 30-20, 30-27 result put Pepperdine in Saturday’s MPSF championship against No. 2 Brigham Young, which defeated No. 3 Hawaii, 30-28, 37-35, 30-26.

Sean Rooney had 21 kills and Fred Winters added 12 for the Waves (24-4), who also got solid but less spectacular performances from freshman middle blocker Andy Hein (seven kills, four block assists) and sophomore outside hitter Mike Gledhill (seven kills, eight digs, three block assists).

Jimmy Pelzel had 26 kills for Irvine (20-11), which opened the season with 10 consecutive victories.

On Jan. 6 Irvine marched into Firestone Fieldhouse and earned the No. 1 ranking in the nation in large part with a sweep of Pepperdine. The Waves have gone on to defeat Irvine three times since then, but none has been as thorough as Thursday’s victory.

“The first time we played them I had never played on this level,” said Mayer, a sophomore transfer from Pierce College. “In some ways that match was intimidating. But in many ways we were learning to play as a team and a lot was on my shoulders.”

First-year Coach John Speraw of Irvine said Pepperdine is peaking at the right time. “You try to stop their big three guys, but then you get performances like Gledhill and Mayer,” he said.

Irvine held only two leads of any consequence -- the biggest being a 10-8 advantage in the first game. But Pepperdine caught the Anteaters shortly thereafter and later used an 8-3 spurt for a 26-20 lead that Irvine couldn’t overcome.