Pepperdine in town At Pepperdine, there never seems to be a bad set of Waves.
for showdown
with Hawaii
No. 1 takes on No. 2 in a pair
of MPSF matches this weekBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com
This week's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponent for the Hawaii volleyball team is top-ranked Pepperdine in a rematch of last year's NCAA championship. Despite welcoming nine newcomers in January, the Waves are a perfect 10-0 in conference play as they prepare for a pair of Manoa matches tomorrow and Friday against the No. 2-rated Warriors.
When: Tomorrow and Friday, 7 p.m. Pepperdine vs. Hawaii
Where: Stan Sheriff Center
TV: Live, Channel 5
Radio: Live, 1420-AM
It is well known that some schools don't have to rebuild in the MPSF, just reload. That seems to be the case for 2002 NCAA finalist Pepperdine. The Waves (12-1 overall) lost four critical players from last year's starting lineup, but have still found success.
Sophomore setter John Mayer has filled in nicely under the tutelage of assistant coaches Rick McLaughlin and Chip McCaw, both former all-conference setters. Freshman Andy Hein, a 6-foot-10 middle blocker, has a huge upside, literally. Sophomore Mike Gledhill contributes in an offense that mostly revolves around last year's AVCA Player of the Year Brad Keenan, 2002 Freshman of the Year Sean Rooney and junior Fred Winters.
"They've distanced themselves from everybody else," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "They were real good at this time last year, too. They were good all year long. They're different than last year, but with those three guys back, they're similar."
The changes in personnel haven't hindered Pepperdine much this season. Since dropping a match to upstart UC Irvine in early January, the Waves are winners of 11 straight, including a victory over the Anteaters two weeks ago.
"We've just been good enough to win some matches," Waves coach Marv Dunphy said. "We've had some close matches. Winning and losing is just one standard. I feel fortunate that we're on the high side with that, yet there's some standards that we haven't been meeting with our team.
"We're playing a great (Hawaii) team. They're the defending national champions until somewhere along the line at the end of the year someone knocks them off. Without question, these are real good league matches for us to be playing. Hawaii has tremendous experience and we know we have to play well."
Even with all that experience, the Warriors have been getting knocked off left and right. Splitting against most conference opponents won't get Hawaii any hosting privileges for the MPSF tournament in April. The Warriors (10-4, 6-4 MPSF) need a one-way ticket out of splitsville now.
"This represents an opportunity to get back in the race for that, and then somebody has to pick Pepperdine off two or three more times," Wilton said. "For us, it represents an opportunity to string together a good effort game. Our last game was very good in the effort department. I think everybody really liked the feeling and how the game was played in terms of effort."
The effort was so good that Wilton may have devised his final last-minute lineup of the year. The Warriors went back to the lineup they used at the beginning of the season with one notable exception in middle.
Senior Brian Nordberg, who is known for his intensity and experience, replaced junior Josh Stanhiser. Nordberg missed several matches this season while coming back from shoulder surgery. Also back on the court for Hawaii was libero Jake Muise, who started five matches before losing his job to freshman Matt Motter.
"After (last) Friday, it could be the end of (splitting)," Muise said. "We really found something that worked. Everybody had fun again, which hasn't happened for a while. The first five games of the year were fine. We were having a great time. We don't really know what happened. All we know is that we found it again."
MPSF standings
MPSF OVERALL W L PCT W L PCT Pepperdine 10 0 1.000 12 1 .923 Brigham Young 9 3 .750 9 3 .750 UC-Irvine 7 4 .636 14 4 .778 CS-Northridge 7 4 .636 11 5 .688 Hawaii 6 4 .600 10 4 .714 Pacific 6 6 .500 9 7 .563 UCLA 6 6 .500 9 7 .563 Stanford 6 6 .500 8 8 .500 Long Beach State 5 6 .455 9 6 .600 UC-Santa Barbara 3 9 .250 6 12 .294 USC 1 9 .100 3 11 .214 UC-San Diego 0 11 .000 3 12 .200 Today
USC at Cal Baptist (nonconference)
Tomorrow
Long Beach St at UC San Diego
Pepperdine at Hawaii
La Verne at UCLA (nonconference)
UH Athletics
