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Men's Volleyball Wins 2008 "Greatest Moments" Award

John Watson accepts awardWatson accepts the award for Pepperdine.

The 2008 Pepperdine men's volleyball team's amazing run through the postseason schedule last year landed them among the top 10 "Greatest Sports Moments of 2008," as determined by the Los Angeles Sports Council. The team was honored at the Fourth Annual Los Angeles Sports Awards, which took place on Jan. 23, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The celebrated "post-season run" seemed unlikely at the start of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) tournament last year, and even more improbable when the Waves were facing match point during game three of the tournament championship match, but Pepperdine rallied to win the title with a five-game victory (28-30, 28-30, 32-30, 30-27, 15-8) against second-seeded and third-ranked Brigham Young. Setter Jonathan Winder had 63 assists and 15 digs, Paul Carroll had a match-high 27 kills and 10 digs, and J.D. Schleppenbach had a career-high 23 kills and 12 digs.

"The Pepperdine men's volleyball team made it to the NCAA Championships final the hard way," the L.A. Sports Council wrote on its Web site. One week later in Irvine, the Waves beat Long Beach State in the NCAA semifinals, their run finally ending in the national championship match in a four-game loss to top-ranked Penn State.

Pepperdine won the award as the result of an online vote, beating out Cal State Fullerton's men's basketball team and the UC Irvine men's soccer team in the "Division I Schools" category, which includes all of the local schools except for USC and UCLA. Because the men's volleyball team had a home match on the night of the awards ceremony, John Watson, director of athletics at Pepperdine, attended the ceremony and accepted the award.

The L.A. Sports Council annually puts out lists of the top sports moments in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, plus additional awards including the Sportsman, Sportswoman, Sports Executive and Coach of the Year.

For more information on the men's volleyball team, visit the Pepperdine Athletics Web site.