Pepperdine Women's Volleyball Announces 2005 Schedule
5/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
May 11, 2005
MALIBU, Calif. -
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The Pepperdine Athletic Department and head coach Nina Matthies announced the 2005 women's volleyball schedule Wednesday afternoon which features 13 home matches, including non-conference foes UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State.
The Waves battled injuries and a rigorous schedule in 2004, a season which ended with a 10-15 record and fifth-place finish in the West Coast Conference (WCC). The team missed the post-season for the first time since the 1997 campaign.
"We have had a great spring and are excited to play what should prove to be an extremely tough schedule," said Matthies who will be in her 23rd season at the helm of the Pepperdine program. "I feel like our home tournament will provide us with some great competition early and we will really have to be ready to play the following weekend at Nebraska. We also face several teams from around the area like USC, Long Beach and UCLA which will all push us to continue to get better throughout the year. Then there is our conference schedule, which should have four or five teams ranked and competing for the WCC title."
Pepperdine will open the 2005 season at home in the Pepperdine Classic where it will face Northern Iowa, Cal State Northridge and Colorado State the first weekend in September. The following weekend should provide a good measuring stick as to how the team is doing early in the season as the Waves head to Lincoln, Neb., for the Players Challenge. While in Nebraska, the Waves are slated to play Penn State, Pacific and Nebraska, with both the Nittany Lions and Cornhuskers among the favorites to make the trip to San Antonio, Texas, sight of next year's championships.
The team will return from the Players Challenge to face Southern Cal and Long Beach State before heading to the Sheraton Invitational in Philadelphia, Penn.
WCC play will open at home against defending league champion San Diego at Firestone Fieldhouse on Sept. 30, and will wrap up on Nov. 19 at Portland, Ore. The Waves will play all seven schools in the conference twice, once at home and once on the road.
The first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament will be played Dec. 1-3 with the regional rounds following the 8-10. The national semi-final and finals will take place Dec. 15 and 17 in Texas.
