Sept. 27, 2011
Match Notes 
MALIBU, Calif. - The #19-ranked Pepperdine women's volleyball team keeps the season rolling with a West Coast Conference match versus Saint Mary's on Thursday, Sept. 29 inside Firestone Fieldhouse.
MATCH #14 - Thursday (Sept. 29) at Firestone Fieldhouse: #19 Pepperdine (8-5, 2-0 WCC) vs. Saint Mary's (6-8, 0-2 WCC) at 7 p.m.
WAVECASTS - All remaining Pepperdine women's volleyball home matches are broadcast live and for FREE via WaveCasts. In addition to live broadcasts, WaveCasts also offers a large selection of game highlights, interviews, features and more!
TICKETS - Single-game prices are $8 for adults, $5 for students/seniors/children and free to all Pepperdine students, faculty and staff (and their dependents) with a valid Pepperdine ID. An all-sports pass, which provides admission to all Pepperdine home sporting events, with the exception of men's basketball, is $100. Call the Ticket Office at (866) WAVE-TIX for more information.
| This Week in Pepperdine Women's Volleyball... |
| #19 Pepperdine vs. Saint Mary's | |
| Sept. 29, 2011 - 7 p.m. |  |
RANKINGS - Pepperdine entered the AVCA Coaches' Top-25 Poll for the first time since the 2007 season, on Sept. 19 at #21. They have since moved up two spots to #19 where they have remained for the last two weeks.
NOTING THE WAVES - Pepperdine is 705-420-2 all time and 290-72 in West Coast Conference play ... Nina Matthies is 538-318 and is in her 29th season at the helm ... Kim Hill became the Waves' 15th member of the 1,000 kills club against Portland on Sept. 22. She currently ranks 13th all-time at Pepperdine with 1,023 career kills ... Pepperdine was voted to win the conference title in the preseason coaches' poll ... The Waves return all seven starters from a year ago, and 12 letterwinners overall ... Matthies and staff have utilized four different starting lineups so far this season ... Pepperdine's freshmen class ranked #9 in Prepvolleyball.com's list of top-30 recruiting classes.
Kim Hill - After averaging 3.67 kills/set in the opening week of league play, senior Kim Hill was named the West Coast Conference Player of the Week. She tallied a team-best 33 total kills in two matches, highlighted by her 10th kill of the contest versus Portland which counted as career kill #1,000. Hill has led the Waves all season long with a kills average of 3.61.
SAINT MARY'S - The Gaels, who were picked to finish second in the WCC Preseason Coaches' Poll, got off to a rough start in league play last week and lost to both BYU and San Francisco. Despite the losses, SMC is still a viable threat for the league title. During the pre-conference portion of the season, the Gaels topped then-#18 Duke and narrowly fell to then-#11 Nebraska in five sets. Lauren Corp has led Saint Mary's this season with 3.37 kills/set in addition to her 2.67 digs/set. Jordan Shaw follows with 3.27 kills/set.
HERE'S TO YOU, MISS ROBINSON - Defensive specialist/libero Stevi Robinson became Pepperdine's all-time leader in digs with her first pick-up versus Michigan on Sept. 10. It was career dig No. 1,405 for the senior, breaking Christina Hinds' (2002-04) previous record of 1,404. Robinson's current career tally stands at 1,477 while her average of 4.37 digs/set ranks second all-time at Pepperdine.
LOOKING BACK - The Waves bounced back from a two-set deficit to defeat Portland 3-2 in the WCC opener at the Chiles Center. They followed that up with a 3-1 win at Gonzaga to improve to 8-5 overall and 2-0 in the conference.
LOOKING AHEAD - Next week, Pepperdine travels the 19.1 miles to Loyola Marymount for a 6 p.m. tryst with Lions on Oct. 5. The match will be broadcast live on ESPNU and also count towards a point in the annual Wells Fargo PCH Cup. The week continues on Saturday, Oct. 8 when Pepperdine plays WCC newcomer BYU at 1 p.m. inside Firestone Fieldhouse.
Lilla Frederick - Senior outside hitter Lilla Frederick has been a consistent two-way volleyball player for the Waves this season, hitting 2.89 kills/set and picking up 3.31 digs/set. She has achieved the kills-digs doubles double during 10 of the season's 13 matches.
MIDDLE PRODUCTION - After emphasizing the need for "more production from the middle blockers," the coaches got exactly what they asked for. Freshman Samantha Cash totaled 29 kills last week, including a career-best 16 earned on a blistering .542 hitting percentage against Gonzaga. Defensively, she added 1.44 blocks/set. Junior Victoria Adelhelm stepped up her game as well, nailing down a total 16 kills versus Portland and Gonzaga to register a .381 clip. Adelhelm had eight blocks against the Pilots alone, and has been a hard-to-handle server all season long. She leads the team with 15 total aces.
CAN YOU DIG IT? - The Waves lead all WCC schools with a 15.83 digs/set. Individually, Lilla Frederick ranks eighth overall with 3.31 digs/set, while Stevi Robinson sits in 10th place with 3.00 digs/set.
WCC STAT COMPARISON - Kim Hill boasts the second highest average in the league with 3.61 kills/set, and her 24 put aways versus UCLA ties for the most by any WCC student-athlete in a single match this season. Lilla Frederick ranks eighth with 3.31 digs/set and Stevi Robinson ranks 10th with 3.00 digs/set. Samantha Cash leads the Waves and ranks fifth in the conference with 1.09 blocks/set, while Kellie Woolever dishes 10.69 assists/set to rank third.
UPDATING THE PEPPERDINE RECORD BOOK - Kim Hill reached the 1,000 career kills milestone on Sept. 22 at Portland. She currently ranks 13th all-time with a tally of 1,023 put aways ... Lilla Frederick could also reach the benchmark by season's end in both kills and digs and enters this week with a career total of 935 kills and 932 digs ... Hill's current career hitting percentage of .320 ranks sixth all-time, while Victoria Adelhelm's .314 clip ranks seventh .... Hill recently broke into Pepperdine's top-10 in the blocks category, and is tied for 10th with 313 career rejections ... Stevi Robinson ranks second all-time with a digs/set average of 4.37 and is the Waves' all-time leader with 1,477 overall pick ups.
FLYERS CLASSIC RECAP - Pepperdine finished a tournament in second place for the second-straight week after going 2-1 at the Dayton Marriott Flyers Classic. The unranked Waves defeated #23 Dayton 3-2, before suffering a five-set loss to #20 Michigan. The team rebounded with a 3-1 win over #24 Florida State. Katie Messing and Kim Hill were all-tournament selections, and averaged 3.86 and 3.07 kills/set respectively.
WAVES OVER BRUINS - Pepperdine handed the previously undefeated and #8-ranked UCLA a 3-2 loss on Sept. 7 inside Firestone Fieldhouse. The last time Pepperdine defeated UCLA was on Oct. 24, 2004 when the unranked Waves defeated the #12 Bruins 3-2. The last time the Waves defeated a top-10 ranked team was on Nov. 25, 2003 when #4-ranked Pepperdine topped #7 UCLA 3-2. Since 1982, Pepperdine has defeated top-10 ranked opponents four times without being ranked themselves.
PEPPERDINE ASICS CLASSIC - The Waves finished in second place behind Miami at the Asics Classic this past weekend. Lilla Frederick and Kellie Woolever were voted to the all-tournament team.
LOWE'S SENIOR CLASS - Senior Kim Hill was chosen as one of 30 candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.
SOCIAL MEDIA - Fans can follow the Waves on Twitter @PepperdineWVB or @PepperdineWaves and "like" us on Facebook by searching for Pepperdine Athletics.
PRESEASON WCC COACHES' POLL - With seven returning starters and a freshmen class ranked #9 by prepvolleyball.com, Pepperdine was picked to finish first in the West Coast Conference in a preseason poll of the league's nine head coaches. The Waves earned seven first-place votes, picking up 62 points overall. Saint Mary's followed with 55 points and one first-place vote. 2010 conference champion San Diego was picked to finish third, and tallied 52 total points and a single #1 vote.
PRESEASON ALL-WCC - Pepperdine led all teams with three preseason all-conference selections. The senior trio of 2010 All-WCC first team selections Kim Hill and Lilla Frederick, along with 2010 WCC Defensive Player of the Year Stevi Robinson were all voted to the preseason team.
Nina Matthies - Now in her 29th season as head coach of the Waves, Nina Matthies' career record currently stands at 538-316 (.629), which includes 10 conference championships and 18 NCAA Tournament appearances. She is by far the WCC's all-time winningest coach and is a nine-time WCC Coach of the Year. Matthies was among the world's top players and is a member of the Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame. In 2009, Dig Magazine rated her and former partner Linda Hanley as the second-best women's beach team of all time. She won two AIAW national championships as a player at UCLA.
SAND VOLLEYBALL - The Pepperdine University Department of Athletics added women's sand volleyball as an intercollegiate sport, and will begin competing for the first time in the spring of 2012. Matthies and Marcio Sicoli will coach the Waves, who are one of around 20 schools to sponsor the emerging sport. Caitlin Racich was Pepperdine's first sand volleyball scholarship recipient for Pepperdine, and will forego her junior season of indoor volleyball to compete with the U.S. Junior National Beach team in preparation for this spring.
2010 RECAP - It was another solid year for the Pepperdine women's volleyball team. Hill earned AVCA All-American honorable mention honors for the second-consecutive season. The Waves finished the league in third place after posting an 11-3 record and finished with an overall record of 20-8. They were the only team to get the better of WCC championship San Diego. Hill and Frederick claimed All-WCC first team recognition, while Robinson was listed on the honorable mention squad, and was named Defensive Player of the Year. Joining her on the honorable mention list was Woolever, Adelhelm and Clark. Woolever made a second appearance, being named to the All-Freshman squad, along with Cook.
VOLLEYBALL HISTORY — The Pepperdine women's volleyball program is synonymous with the word excellence, as the Waves are a perennial national power. The Waves have advanced to postseason play 25 times in 36 seasons, including 11 trips to the NCAA Championships in the last 14 seasons. Pepperdine's best finishes in recent years came when the team made the regional final of the 2002 NCAAs, and then in 2003 when the Waves posted 27 victories (most in the Nina Matthies era).
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports - one of just 16 schools to have accomplished this feat - and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest enrollment and is the only school not in a major conference. Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #55 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges. The 2011-12 school year marks Pepperdine's 75th anniversary.
