Santa Barbara High alum Will Rottman pounded 22 kills for Stanford, but it wasn’t enough as the Cardinal fell to No. 8 Pepperdine in the championship of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Men’s Volleyball Tournament at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night.
Pepperdine’s 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 15-12 victory earns it a NCAA Tournament berth.
Stanford (14-14), which was the lowest seed to reach the MPSF championship since 2011, rallied from an 0-2 deficit and forced a fifth set.
Trailing 12-7 in the fifth, Stanford went on a 4-0 run to cut it to a one-point advantage for the Waves. The run included a pair of kills by Rottman and a solo block from Ethan Hill. Pepperdine then closed out the match on a 3-1 run of its own.
Rottman, a junior, recorded 20-plus kills for the fourth straight match. He added seven digs, a block and an ace.
Stanford out hit Pepperdine (19-9), .291 to .285 and out blocked the Waves 12.0 to 7.0. Pepperdine held a 45-28 advantage in digs and a 4-1 edge in aces.
Middle blocker Nathaniel Gates registered a .714 attack percentage with five kills on seven errorless swings. The junior also notched five blocks. Opposite Luke Turner added three kills, five digs and a block.
Pepperdine had four players register double-digit kills, led by Spencer Wickens’ 16. Outside hitter Alex Gettinger totaled 15 kills and eight digs, while Jaylen Jasper, a graduate transfer from Stanford, had 13 kills, 10 digs and five blocks.
Libero Justin Lui and Rottman were named to the seven-player all-tournament team, joining Pepperdine’s Bryce Dvorak (MVP), Alex Gettinger and Jacob Steele, UCLA’s Kevin Kobrine and USC’s Sam Kobrine.