SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga volleyball picked up its first win against a ranked opponent in program history in a five-set thriller on Saturday at the Martin Centre, falling down 0-2 against No. 22 Pepperdine but storming back with three straight set wins to sink the Waves (15-6, 6-4 WCC).
The win is also GU's first against the Waves since 2017, snapping an 11-game losing streak.
"I am so proud of each one of our players, both those who played on the court and those who contributed from the bench," said Head Coach Katie Wilson. "Everyone brought energy and a belief that we could win this match — this win was a complete team effort."
The Bulldogs (5-16, 1-9) connected on 13 service aces in total in the winning effort, the fourth-most in a single game in the Rally Scoring Era and the most since 2019. Five different Zags served up multiple aces, including three apiece from Keau Kamake'eaina and Alisa Kim and two each from Dani Batenhorst, Zoe Thiros and Viktoriya Ivanova. Grace Ehler added a service ace of her own along with a pair of crucial kills to force set five, where she served for what would be the match-deciding rally to clinch the final set.
Pepperdine connected on 14 more kills than GU, but the Bulldogs outblocked the Waves 14-11.
Thiros' 21 kills were just short of a career-high to lead GU on offense, with McKenna Marshall supplying 12 on team-high .458 hitting. Freshman Autumn Larson added 11 more, combining with Kelsie White (three kills) for 11 total blocks. Kamake'eaina produced 43 of the Bulldogs' 46 assists.
Pepperdine enforced its will in the first two sets, finishing with a combined 31 kills while holding the Zags to 19 in that span on .152 hitting in the process. But set three marked a turnaround for the Bulldogs, who heated up at the net and at the service line to take and maintain control late. Thiros and Marshall combined for 15 kills over sets three and four to keep the Zags alive with little room for error.
Facing a sweep in set three, GU rallied back from down 11-6 to take a 14-13 lead and came back again from down 18-14, ripping off a 5-0 run to tie things up at 20-all and scoring five of the next seven to stay alive. The Bulldogs finished the set with five service aces — all from different players — and a combined nine kills from Thiros, Larson and Marshall for their first set win of the day.
GU dominated set four from the get-go, connecting on 15 kills at a .419 clip to go with five more aces. The Zags got off to a 9-3 start that saw three aces and three kills from Thiros and didn't look back, weathering a 4-0 run in response but never allowing the Waves to score more than two unanswered the rest of the way. After two more aces from Kim made it 23-16 Zags, Ehler supplied the final two points with a pair of kills to even things up and force a decisive fifth set.
The Bulldogs had to play from behind late in the fifth, when Pepperdine led by as much as 11-7 after a service ace from Meg Brown capped off a 6-2 swing. But GU scored seven of the next nine in response, including four kills and an attack error that put GU at their first match point, 14-13. The Waves tied it up with Grace Chillingworth's 17th kill of the day, but Thiros' 21st kill and a solo block from White sealed the deal on the Zags' biggest win of the season so far.
Up Next
The Zags travel to Provo, Utah for a rematch with BYU on Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. GU fell 1-3 (25-23, 18-25, 22-25, 22-25) to the Cougars (14-5, 7-2 WCC) in their last meeting in Spokane on Oct. 1.Live stats and streaming options will be available via GoZags.com. Follow @ZagVolleyball on IG and Twitter for updates and more.
