UCLA
Pepperdine (Kilgour Cup)
Pepperdine Sweeps UCLA in Kilgour Cup
January 15, 2010 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 15, 2010
The UCLA men's volleyball team dropped its fourth straight match Friday to Pepperdine in the 33rd Annual Kilgour Cup.
Pepperdine won 30-27, 30-22, 30-23 in 90 minutes in front of 937 fans at Pauley Pavilion. The Waves notched their first win of the season and improved to 1-2 overall and evened their conference record to 1-1. UCLA fell to 1-4 overall, 0-2 in MPSF play. Pepperdine's victory was its first in nine tries against the Bruins in Kilgour Cup matches. The Waves last won the Kilgour Cup in 1979 against Maccabi Union in a five-game match.
In Game 1 the Bruins appeared to be on their way to a victory when Pepperdine called its final timeout trailing 21-15. The teams traded points and then the visitors ran off three straight to force the Bruins into a timeout at 22-19. The teams traded points again before the Waves closed to 23-22 on a kill by Brent Schirripa. The Bruins used their final timeout and took a two-point lead with sophomore Nick Vogel's kill. From that point, Pepperdine outscored UCLA 7-3 to take the game.
In the next two games, the Bruins slowly unraveled. They hung with the Waves for 13 points in the second game, but a 3-0 run gave the visitors a 16-13 lead when UCLA called its first timeout. From there, the Bruins couldn't get over the hump as the Waves scored 14 of the next 23 points to win by eight.
UCLA never led in Game 3, falling behind by three midway through the game until the Waves pulled away on a kill by Schirripa and UCLA's Garrett Muagututia made a hitting error to make it 26-20. The Waves outscored the Bruins 4-3 down the stretch.
UCLA hit a respectable .327 for the match, led by 19 kills (.406) from sophomore Jack Polales and 13 from Muagututia. Junior Tom Hastings led the team with nine digs and senior setter Kevin Ker recorded 46 assists.
Pepperdine, which hit .467, got 16 kills (.407) from Schirripa, 14 from Maurice Torres and 11 from Rodei Santos.
For UCLA's complete 2010 schedule, click here.
