MALIBU, Calif. ­Â— The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team and head coach Nina Matthies announced what should be a very challenging 2009 schedule today. Nearly half of Pepperdine’s 27 matches will take place against 2008 NCAA Tournament teams.

 

The Waves went 20-8 last season and made it to their 11th NCAA Tournament in the last 12 years before losing to Long Beach State in the first round. Pepperdine returns four of its six starters plus the libero.

 

In 2009, the Waves will play 13 matches against eight teams that also took part in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

 

“I really think it’s a good schedule,” said Matthies, who will be in her 27th year as head coach. “We open up at a great tournament at Colorado State, we get to come home for a couple of weeks and we get a really tough week against UCLA and Hawaii. It will really prepare us for when we go into the conference season. The WCC is so tough. It’ll be a challenge again this season but we’ll be ready.”

 

The Waves begin their campaign at the Colorado State Asics Classic on Aug. 28-30. The Waves open up with the host Rams, a 2008 NCAA Tournament team, and then play two more quality opponents in Cal Poly SLO and Oregon State. Last year, the Waves beat both Colorado State and Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore.

 

Pepperdine and USC will co-host a tournament the following weekend (Sept. 3-5). The Waves will play home matches against Northern Arizona and Florida Gulf Coast and will visit USC on Friday, Sept. 4. The Women of Troy made it to the NCAA second round last season.

 

The Waves will then host their annual Asics Classic from Sept. 11-13. Army, Seattle and UC Riverside will visit Firestone Fieldhouse for the three-day, six-match event.

 

Pepperdine will follow with its biggest non-conference week of the season. The Waves will host UCLA on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and then head to Honolulu for two matches against Hawaii on Sept. 18-19. Both the Bruins and the Rainbow Wahine were ranked in the top 10 of last year’s final Bison/AVCA poll. Hawaii made it to the NCAA’s final eight, while UCLA was in the final 16 of the tournament.

 

When the West Coast Conference begins on October 1, the Waves will face four more 2008 NCAA Tournament teams, as Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara were awarded bids last year along with Pepperdine. With five WCC schools making the NCAA Tournament, it tied the second-most in conference history. The Waves play five of their first seven conference matches at home, and finish with five of seven on the road.

 

A non-conference road match at UC Santa Barbara interrupts WCC play on Tuesday, Oct. 13.