ASSOCIATED PRESS Pepperdine players celebrated after the top-ranked Waves won the NCAA title with a victory over UCLA last night.

Waves rush to title

LOS ANGELES » It was back on Feb. 12 that Pepperdine's 1985 NCAA men's volleyball championship team reunited during the school's homecoming celebration. Known as the Malibu Roofing Co., that Waves squad finished 25-2 after defeating Southern California in the final held at Pauley Pavilion.

All-Tournament team » Sean Rooney, Pepperdine » Jon Parfitt, Pepperdine » Jonathan Winder, Pepperdine » Jonathan Acosta, UCLA » Paul Johnson, UCLA » Alex Gutor, Penn State » Mark Greaves, Ohio State

Twenty years later, deja vu was served up with an exclamation point and another roofing job. Last night, top-ranked Pepperdine brought home its fifth national title, capping a 25-2 season with 19 blocks in rallying for a stunning 30-23, 23-30, 24-30, 30-25, 15-10 victory over UCLA.

A crowd of 6,853 saw the Waves get 26 kills from tournament MVP Sean Rooney and 18 from Jon Parfitt in handing the Bruins their first loss in 26 final-four matches at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA (26-6) had come into the match with a 25-0 mark at home and looking for its 19th championship, first since 2000.

Instead, it was the Waves winning their first title since 1992. It was just the second time in six championship meetings that Pepperdine prevailed against UCLA, the first resulting in the Waves' first banner in 1978.

"It was just unbelievable to go out with such a team win," Rooney said. "And to do it at Pauley Pavilion, it was just perfect."

It was the final match for Rooney and fellow seniors James Ka and John Mayer.

"I can't even explain how it feels," said Ka, a Kamehameha Schools graduate. "After it was over, I couldn't let go of Sean. I wanted to just hang on to him and hang on to the night.

"Going into Game 5, we had the momentum. We knew we had to stay calm."

Pepperdine calmly rolled to leads of 4-0 and 8-1, knowing it just needed to sideout to win. The Waves finally slowed down UCLA's Jonathan Acosta, who had just three of his 29 kills in the final game.

The Bruins pulled to within 12-8 and 14-10, but "it was too big of a hole to dig out of," said UCLA coach Al Scates, now 18-6 in title matches. "It doesn't matter where you lose. They're all tough."

When it came to five-game matches, Pepperdine was tougher. The Waves finished 7-0 when it went to Game 5; last night was just the second time they had to do it after trailing 2-1.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Pepperdine's Andy Hein, center, celebrated with teammates James Ka of Kamehameha, left, and Jonathan Winder.

The Waves had just one hitting error, hitting .531 in controlling Game 1. Rooney scored Pepperdine's final three points, on a kill, a block of Steve Klosterman and a slam of a service overpass.

UCLA found a rhythm in Game 2, while Pepperdine began to lose its. With up referee Rick Olmstead calling a tight game, the Waves were called for six ball-handling errors and began playing tentatively.

Leading 16-15, the Bruins pulled away for good with a 4-0 run, using two Wave ball-handling errors and having a controversial call go their way. An attempt by Parfitt appeared to hit the UCLA blockers out of bounds, but it was ruled there was no touch.

Acosta had 10 of the team's 21 kills in leading the Bruins in Game 3, with Klosterman closing it out with his second ace.

The Waves continued to ride the arm of Rooney (seven kills) in Game 4. At 29-23, UCLA held off two game points to close to 29-25 only to have a dig by libero Ka off an Allan Vince serve return over the net for the last point, forcing Game 5.

It was all Pepperdine after that, with Tom Hulse coming up big. He was in on 12 of the Waves' 19 blocks, including four block assists in Game 5.

"It's hard to compare teams," Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy said. "The 1985 team was a really good blocking team. So was this one."

Always a Hawaii connection: UCLA freshman Allison Ho, a 2004 Iolani School graduate, won a drawing for a trip to the men's volleyball final four next year at Penn State.