Pepperdine Looks to Extend Win Streak at Wisconsin
9/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Week 5 – September 15 - 21, 2008
Friday, September 19 at 5 p.m. PT
Pepperdine (3-3-1, 0-0 WCC) at
Sunday, September 21 at 12:15 p.m. PT
Pepperdine (3-3-1, 0-0 WCC) vs.
WAVES ON THE ROAD (0-0-0): The Waves are finally making their first road trip of 2008 following a program-record seven-match homestand that opened the season and resulted in a 3-3-1 record ... Their trip this weekend is the start of a treacherous stretch of matches, in which they’ll play eight of their next nine contests away from home ... Pepperdine has posted seven winning seasons on the road with the last coming in 2005 (3-2-2) ... The Waves last trip to Wisconsin was in 2002 for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament; they defeated both UW-Milwaukee (2-0) and Wisconsin (2-1 OT) en route to their first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance.
PEPPERDINE VS. THE BIG TEN PART II: Pepperdine faces its third Big Ten opponent of the season Friday when it pays a visit to Madison, Wis., and the Wisconsin Badgers ... Pepperdine beat the Badgers in the second round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament and tied them at 1-1 four seasons later at Tari Frahm Rokus Field ... The Waves are 3-3-2 all-time vs. the Big Ten, which includes a 1-1 mark this season ... Pepperdine beat Iowa 1-0 in overtime earlier this month, but dropped a 3-2 decision to Northwestern during the same weekend.
WAVES VS. MARQUETTE AND THE BIG EAST: Other than a 3-0 home victory over Villanova during the 2000 season, there isn’t much history to speak of between Pepperdine and the Big East Conference ... The Waves have never played Marquette despite both teams’ regular and postseason successes, nor have they ever battled former Big East institutions such as Boston College, Virginia Tech or Miami.
RUPP STILL ROLLING: Senior Amanda Rupp has scored four goals over the last five matches and leads the Waves with nine points ... Rupp’s point and goal totals currently rank her fourth this season in the West Coast Conference behind three members of the Portland Pilots ... Rupp needs one more goal to tie her season record of five (2007) and two more to crack into the Pepperdine top 10 for career goals ... Last weekend, Rupp extended her consecutive-game point streak to five with an insurance goal vs. Tennessee and crossed a game-winning assist to Sophia Medina against Washington State.
WHO THE HECK IS THAT?: In her first weekend as Pepperdine’s starting goalkeeper, Lacey Heck pitched back-to-back shutouts and combined for seven saves ... The freshman was greatly helped by her team of defenders, which limited Tennessee to 12 shots and Washington State to only five.
WAVES CRASH AWARDS’ STAGE: Amanda Rupp and Lacey Heck received a slew of national awards this week as result of their aforementioned efforts in victories against Tennessee and Washington State ... Rupp was one of five forwards nationally to be named to the Soccer Buzz Magazine Elite Team of the Week, and was one of three tabbed to the Soccer America Team of the Week ... Heck, a goalkeeper, was named Player of the Week by both TopDrawerSoccer.com and the West Coast Conference.
ABOUT LAST WEEKEND: The Waves pushed their win-loss record to .500 at 3-3-1 following two convincing victories over quality opponents in #23 Tennessee and Washington State ... Samantha Hire and Amanda Rupp scored for the Waves in their 2-0 win over the Lady Vols, and Sophia Medina netted the game-winner in the 1-0 triumph against the Cougars ... Pepperdine’s defense was just as impressive as it turned away 12 shots and eight corner kicks vs. UT ... Against WSU, the Waves limited their opponents to just five shots.
WAVES AT TARI FRAHM ROKUS FIELD (3-3-1): The Waves are 100-34-17 (.718) in 15 seasons of playing at Tari Frahm Rokus Field, including a 4-3-4 mark in 2007 ... Pepperdine, which has yet to post a losing record at Rokus Field in any season, has recorded two unbeaten and four one-loss campaigns on its home pitch since the program’s inception in 1993 ... The Waves collected their 100th home victory Sunday in a 1-0 win over Washington State.
THE HEAD COACH: The Waves are 118-62-28 (.635) under the direction of Tim Ward, who has served as Pepperdine’s skipper since 1998 ... Under Ward, the Waves have made the NCAA Tournament in five of the last seven years ... Ward has been with Pepperdine from nearly the beginning, as the program was established in 1993 and he became an assistant coach in 1994 before being elevated to the head position in 1998.
THE WAVES’ TRI-CAPTAINS: For 2008, the team captains are junior goalkeeper Kayla Stolte, senior midfielder Ashley Copp and junior forward Courtney Price ... The tri-captains were voted to their current position by their teammates just weeks before the start of the 2008 spring season ... Their leadership helped the Waves rebound from a disappointing 5-8-6 record in 2007, by guiding the club to an 8-1 mark against its exhibition opponents.
PRIZED RECRUITS: Pepperdine’s recruiting class was ranked 34th in the nation (out of 320 programs) and ninth in the West Region (out of 49 teams) by Soccer Buzz Magazine ... Head coach Tim Ward’s 2008 recruiting class includes Soccer Buzz Top 100 recruit and defender Kelsea Smith as well as Top 200 recruits forward Laura Cole and defender/midfielder Myriah Stockman ... As a conference, the WCC ranked fourth (out of 31) in the Soccer Buzz conference team rankings behind only the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-10.
NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE: Former Wave Jenna Shay was nominated by the West Coast Conference for the 18th annual NCAA Woman of the Year Award ... This award honors student-athletes after their senior year of academic eligibility for their collegiate achievements in service, leadership, athletics and academics ... During her career at Pepperdine, Shay was named to the WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll all four years and was a member of the Pepperdine Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) ... During the summer of 2007, Shay spent time in Uganda teaching soccer clinics, volunteering in a medical clinic and sharing her faith ... She also spent time as a student-teacher at local middle and high schools earning her the Athletic Director’s Award for Excellence in Academics, Athletics and Community Service ... The 2008 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced in Indianapolis on Oct. 19.
TICKETS FOR NEXT HOME GAME: Single-match tickets to all home women’s soccer games are $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors and free to all Pepperdine students and faculty with an university ID ... Pepperdine’s next home match is Friday, Sept. 26 at 3 p.m. vs. Idaho State.
