Nov. 20, 2004

Box Score

(Malibu, CA) - For the second consecutive night the 15th-ranked San Diego volleyball team overcame an early deficit to rally and win a 3-2 decision on the road. USD (21-4; 14-0 WCC), who has already clinched the 2004 WCC Championship, completes league play unbeaten at 14-0 after a (27-30, 32-30, 28-30, 30-22 and 15-12) victory over Pepperdine (10-15, 7-7 WCC). USD has won 15 straight heading into its season-finale vs. San Diego State Tuesday at 8pm.

As reported by Pepperdine Sports Information...

Trailing 2-1 in the match and 22-19 in game four San Diego got a break as a kill attempt by Sophia Milo was dug by USD's Jackie Bernardin. The ball seeming was headed for the seats when it hit a light fixture overhead and found its way in to the waiting arms of a fellow Torero player. San Diego ended up winning the point and would record the next 10 with Emily Haas at the service line to force game five, 30-22.

Junior Katy Daly led all players with 22 kills on the night and committed just six errors to lead the Pepperdine attack. Milo finished the night with 18 kills, while senior Kristen Shultz ended her career with a 17-kill, 16-dig match.

The Torero's Devon Forster tallied 21 kills but hit just .119 for the match. Haas, Kristen Hurst and Kristen Carlson each had 13 kills. The Waves took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 30-27 win in game one. Pepperdine trailed by as many as five in the early goings before an 8-3 run knotted the game up at 13-13. The Waves would push the lead up to five at 20-15 before holding off a late Torero rally.

Game two was another tightly contested battle as the teams combined for 16 ties and 10 lead changes. Pepperdine got a break trailing 11-9 when an USD attack hit Pepperdine's Kekai Crabbe in the foot and fell untouched to the floor on the Torero's side of the floor. A Milo kill completed the comeback as the Waves pulled even at 15-all. USD stretched its advantage back to three moments later at 20-17 forcing Pepperdine to use a timeout. Again the Waves would rally back to tie the game up at 24-24. A Shultz kill locked the score up at 28-all and an attack error had Pepperdine serving, game point. USD fought off the point only to see Shultz give the Waves the ball and game point for a second time. But San Diego would rattle off the next three points and even the match up at 1-1 with a 32-30 victory.

The match would prove to be a battle of the liberos as Pepperdine's Christina Hinds recorded 32 digs and was matched dig-for-dig by USD's Bernardin. All told, 10 players logged double-digit dig efforts as the two schools combined for 240 digs.

Pepperdine raced out of the gates in game three scoring the first three points. The Toreros would matriculate back into the match and tie the game up at 15-15. The teams traded sideouts until the score was 26-26. Pepperdine fell behind by two, 28-26, before recording the final four points of the game and took a 2-1 lead in the match.

USD scored the first point of game five and never relinquished the lead despite the Waves knotting the score twice in the game. Trailing by five, 11-6, Daly and Shultz recorded kills, closing the gap to 11-8. The last of Melissa Mehlhorn's five solo blocks on the night cut the Torero lead to two at 13-11. Mehlhorn and Lecca Roberts would combine on a block for Pepperdine's final point of the season, which made the score 14-12 but USD would score the next point, preserving its undefeated WCC record.