MALIBU, Calif. — Gonzaga volleyball concluded its fall 2021 season on the road Tuesday afternoon, falling to No. 25 Pepperdine in straight sets (23-25, 22-25, 21-25) at the Firestone Fieldhouse.
The Zags close the season with a 9-20 record and a 5-13 mark in West Coast Conference play.
The Zags stood strong while reaching 20 points in all three sets, but Pepperdine closed out strong in each to keep the match from going to four. Kennedy Croft paced GU on offense with a team-high ten kills, Juliette Russell and McKenna Marshall added eight each, and Cara McKenzie and Zoe Thiros finished with six and four, respectively. Russell's .467 hitting average was the highest of either team for a player with more than 12 attack attempts, and Croft went without a single error throughout the entire match.
GU finished with five service aces in total -- Croft, Viktoriya Ivanova and Dani Batenhorst all served up an ace apiece while Thiros connected on two. Ivanova had the team lead in digs with 14, and Croft added eight for another near- double-double. Keau Kamake'eaina generated 30 of the Zags' 36 assists while adding seven digs of her own.
GU pushed the Waves to the limit in a tight first set, putting up 15 kills with a game-high .343 hitting average. Pepperdine took a 7-3 lead after a pair of 3-0 runs to start the set, but a service error and three consecutive Waves attack errors from the Waves allowed GU to tie it up at 14-all. Another 3-0 run from Pepperdine wasn't enough to put away the Zags for good as the set neared its finale, with a kill from McKenzie and an ace from Batenhorst getting GU within one at set point -- but a GU attack error sealed the set in the Waves' advantage.
The prolific attacking continued in the second, with a .303 average and 14 more kills -- eight of which came from Russell and Croft. A late 3-0 run from the Zags with kills from Marshall and Russell tied the set up at 22-all, but Pepperdine responded with a 3-0 run of their own to escape another close contest.
The Zags took an early 3-2 lead in a decisive third set, but Pepperdine soon raced out to a 21-11 advantage thanks to 13 kills over the next 27 points. GU outscored Pepperdine 10-4 through the rest of the set, but another set-closing score from the Waves got them out of the match with a straight-sets win.
