Sept. 19, 2003

Malibu, Calif. -- The Pepperdine Waves (2-0) will travel to the So Cal Tournament at UC Irvine this weekend in hopes of clinching their first tournament championship. The Waves are seeded first in their bracket, along with second-seeded and fifth-ranked UCLA (1-1) and third-seeded and 19th-ranked Cal Baptist (1-1).

"This tournament is important for our team because of several reasons," said head coach, Terry Schroeder. "We will have the opportunity to face top-ranked teams and the tournament will allow us to measure where we stand up against our opponents. Also, my staff and I can evaluate players and see how they are progressing each match. We are really excited to travel to Irvine and we plan to bring home some victories."

The first action for the Waves on Saturday will be UCLA, who they defeated 7-4 last weekend in Malibu, in a 2:35 p.m. matchup. Following that match, Pepperdine will face-off against Cal Baptist at 6:55 p.m.

The Bruins finished 1-1 at last weekend's matches that were hosted by Pepperdine. Against the Waves, junior driver Brett Ormsby and redshirt freshman center Grant Zider both scored goals against Pepperdine. Meanwhile, Cal Baptist also opened their season in Malibu last weekend and they defeated Claremont-Mudd, 12-7, and fell to UCLA, 12-5. Filip Lugovic paced his team with three goals followed by Gordon Milic and Brett Peterson who each pitched in two goals.

For the Waves, Morgan Matthies led his team against the Bruins after scoring a pair of goals in his first match of the season. Against Claremont-Mudd, both Doug Mann and Garrit Barth registered hat tricks in Pepperdine's win.

The outcome of Saturday's matches will determine the time of play for Pepperdine at the So Cal Tournament. If they finish first in their pool, the Waves will compete at 9:10 a.m. on Sunday against the winner of Group A (USC, UC Irvine, Long Beach State).