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Another week and another win against a top-five nationally ranked team for No. 10/8 Pepperdine.
Freshman setter Robert Mullahey guided the offense to more than a .500 attack percentage in the final two games as Pepperdine swept No. 2/2 UCLA 25-21, 25-23, 25-20 on Friday in Malibu, California.
The Waves out-hit the Bruins .455 to .203 and committed eight attack errors throughout the entire match — seven fewer errors than UCLA (14-4, 3-1 MPSF).
Outside attacker Alex Harthaller in the conference victory finished with a match-high 17 kills and zero attack errors on a .708 attack percentage. In addition, Preseason All-American outside attacker David Wieczorek had 13 kills while hitting .440 and led all players with four aces.
This is the second consecutive week that the Waves (9-3, 3-1 MPSF) have defeated one of the top ranked teams in the nation. Pepperdine upset No. 5/5 UC Irvine in four games last week for the second win during its current five-match winning streak.
The Bruins playing without opposite Christian Hessenauer were limited to two players with more than four kills against the Waves. Hessenauer entered the weekend in the nation’s top 25 with a 3.40 kills per game average.
UCLA has now lost three consecutive matches after winning 14 of its 15 matches to open the season. This conference loss drops into the team into a tie with Pepperdine for second place in the MPSF.
Check out the video highlights of the match filmed by Off the Block associate editor Jonathan Bates.