Nov. 21, 2017 Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The No. 9 USD Volleyball team (24-4, 17-1) knocked off Pepperdine in four sets to win the WCC Championship Tuesday evening inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion. After starting off slow in the first, the Toreros won the next three sets to clinch their 14th consecutive win (15-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-22).
This is the Toreros' tenth WCC Championship and their first since 2013. They are co-champions with BYU, but USD earns the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament due to the head-to-head points tiebreaker. The Toreros will find out their first round opponent and site on Sunday during the NCAA Selection Show, which is airing at 6:00 p.m. on ESPNU.
Three Toreros had double-digit kills, led by Jayden Kennedy's 16. Addie Picha had 12 with just one error and Kaity Edwards notched ten kills. Kristen Gengenbacher had a double-double with 47 assists and ten digs. Lizzy Tardieu led the team with 18 digs.
The Toreros struggled in the first set and had more errors (10) than kills (9), losing 25-15. They rebounded in the second set, fueled by four aces. They jumped out to a 3-1 lead and didn't trail the rest of the set. They led by as much as 11 (22-11), but Pepperdine made a mini-run to cut the deficit to six (24-18), but it was too little too late and USD took the set 25-18.
The Toreros hit .262 in the third set and used a late 8-3 run to pull away from the Waves with a 22-17 lead. The fourth set was tied at eight apiece until the Toreros went on a 7-2 run to go up 15-10. The Waves then took the next three points behind two aces, but the Toreros withstood their run to take the fourth set 25-22.
Pepperdine was led by Hannah Frohling, who had 18 kills and 10 digs. Jasmine Gross chipped in 14 kills as well.
