Women's Volleyball Welcomes Santa Clara, San Francisco
10/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's volleyball team continues the West Coast Conference season with home matches vs. Santa Clara and San Francisco this week. The Waves square off with the Broncos inside Firestone Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening before welcoming in the Dons for a 1 p.m. match on Saturday.
Match 19: Santa Clara (13-6, 3-3 WCC) at Pepperdine (7-11, 2-4 WCC) | October 16 | 7 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif.
Match 20: San Francisco (10-8, 3-3 WCC) at Pepperdine | October 18 | 1 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif.
TICKETS - Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for alumni, children, seniors and students. Admission to regular-season home events is free for Pepperdine students, faculty and staff with a valid Pepperdine ID. The Pepperdine All-Sports Pass can be purchased for $100 and includes admission to all 2014-15 regular-season home athletics events, excluding all men's basketball and postseason competitions. Call the Ticket Office at (866) WAVE-TIX for more information.
WAVECASTS - Can't make it out to the match? No problem! PepperdineSports.com offers a wide variety of FREE options to follow along with all your favorite teams ... WaveCasts broadcasts most home matches for free on your computer or on mobile devices ... Links to any available live stats, video and audio can always be found by clicking on a particular event on the schedule page ... Watch WaveCasts from your phone by downloading the Pepperdine mobile app, available for iPhone, Android and iPad users.
LOOKING BACK: Despite a solid offensive effort, the Waves stumbled vs. top-25 ranked Loyola Marymount last week ... Katie Messing continued to be the go-to attacker and cashed in on 16 kills while hitting .452 ... As a team, Pepperdine hit .324 -- the best clip against a conference opponent to date and third highest of the season ... Head coach Troy Tanner elected to continue with the 5-1 offense, with Becca Strehlow dishing 39 assists ... LMU shined on the defensive front, out-digging the Waves 40-26 to gain the advantage.
LOOKING AHEAD: Pepperdine hits the road next week for matches at San Diego (Oct. 23) and BYU (Oct. 25) ... The Waves return to Firestone Fieldhouse the following weekend to host Portland and Gonzaga.
FIVB WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - Kim Hill, an indoor volleyball standout from 2008-11, made history on Sunday, winning the FIVB World Championship gold medal alongside the U.S. Women's National Team in Italy ... Hill paced the team with 20 points and was named the championship's Most Valuable Player ... The U.S. swept #1 Brazil in the semifinals before defeating China 3-1 in the finals ... The U.S. moved up to the #1 spot in the world rankings after the win ... Team USA had never before won a major tournament title, including at the World Championships, World Cup and Olympic Games ... Hill was also dubbed a "Best Spiker" ... Hill has been suiting up as an outside hitter for the Red, White and Blue since 2013 after a stellar open tryout ... Assistant coach Alex Dunphy actually had to convince Hill to attend the tryout ... Hill also plays professionally in Poland for Atom Trefl Sopot ... She was a three-time All-American for Pepperdine, and led the Waves to the 2011 NCAA Tournament regional final ... She was also a two-time All-American on the sand volleyball team, and on the inaugural national championship squad in 2012 ... Pepperdine men's volleyball coaches Marv Dunphy and David Hunt were both overseas with the team serving on Karch Kiraly's coaching staff.
SENIOR CLASS: Senior middle blocker Samantha Cash was announced as a top-30 candidate for the prestigious Senior CLASS Award on Sept. 9 ... 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 ... An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
OPPONENT NOTES: Santa Clara is 13-6 after beating Portland and losing to Gonzaga last week at home ... Jon Wallace, the Bronco's coach, was an assistant coach at Pepperdine for seven seasons ... USF brings a 10-8 record into this week ... The Dons fell to Gonzaga in five sets before edging Portland, 3-2 last week.
TRIPLE THREAT: Junior setter Becca Strehlow has been doing a little bit of everything for the Waves ... Strehlow began setting all the way around in the 5-1 offense vs. Portland (Oct. 4) ... Prior to that, the Waves ran a 6-2 with Strehlow setting from the back row and hitting from the front row ... She already has three kills-digs-assists triple-doubles to her credit this season, after charting a blocks-digs-assists triple-double in 2013 ... The junior leads Pepperdine in assists (6.74 a/s) and digs (3.51 d/s) ... Strehlow was an AVCA All-American honorable mention in indoor last season, and a first-team All-American in sand volleyball.
CHECK THE RECORD: Samantha Cash continues to move up the ladder, and now ranks third in Pepperdine program history with 394 career blocks ... She began the season in 10th place ... Victoria Adelhelm sits in second place with 455 career blocks ... Katie Messing surpassed the 900 career kills milestone vs. Loyola Marymount and enters the week with 912 career kills ... She could become the 17th Wave to reach the 1,000 kills milestone.
MESSING: Since returning to the starting lineup vs. BYU (9/30), Katie Messing has led the Waves with 4.07 kills/set ... She is averaging 2.75 kills/set on the season ... On the defensive side, she averages 2.08 digs/set ... On serve receive, Messing boasts the best success rate with just seven errors through 127 attempts (.945) ... The 6-foot-4 outside hitter led Pepperdine in kills as a junior with a 3.54 kills/set average.
SWINGING SOPHOMORES: Sophomore outside hitters Jillian Bergeson and Gaby Palmeri have emerged as two of the offensive leaders on the team ... Bergeson ties for first with Messing in Pepperdine's offense with a 2.75 kills/set average after serving as the starting libero in 2013 ... The Texas native has also shined from the service line, and leads the team with 26 aces in 2014 ... She tallied 12 aces at the UC Irvine Tournament alone, including five in the win vs. Utah State ... Palmeri, in her first season as an on-court regular, has also impressed ... She ranks third behind Bergeson and Messing with 2.72 kills/set ... The sophomore pegged down a then career-high 15 kills off of 30 errorless swings for an impressive .500 hitting percentage vs. Oral Roberts ... Palmeri paced Pepperdine at the Bluejay Invitational with 3.64 kills/set.
THE ROTATION: Pepperdine has gone with a 6-2 offense for most of the season, but has run a 5-1 offense for the last two matches ... Becca Strehlow and Chanel Brown share setting duties in the 6-2 offense ... Strehlow plays all the way around, serving as a hitter while in the front row ... Brown is also capable of playing in the front row as an offensive option ... Jillian Bergeson, Gaby Palmeri and Katie Messing have held down the pin hitting positions ... Allie Loitz has offered support mostly off the bench, but has earned a few starting gigs as both outside hitter and libero .. Samantha Cash has started every match at middle blocker, while Olivia Okoro and Emma Fuzie share time as the second middle blocker ... Katie Lespier began the year as the Waves' starting libero.
RESUME BUILDERS: Becca Strehlow and Samantha Cash were singled out as preseason All-WCC picks ... Strehlow earned all-tournament honors at the Asics Classic, UC Irvine and Bluejay Invitationals ... Cash was an all-tournament selection at the UC Irvine and Residence Inn Invitationals ... Jillian Bergeson was voted to the Residence Inn Invitational All-Tournament team.
TOURNAMENT SEASON RECAP: The Waves concluded tournament play with a 5-7 record ... Pepperdine placed second at its own Asics Classic to start the season ... The Waves swept South Alabama to open the year, giving head coach Troy Tanner a win in his Pepperdine coaching debut ... All three of his predecessors, Patti Bright, Gary Sato and Nina Matthies won in their Firestone Fieldhouse debuts ... Gaby Palmeri charted her first career double-double with 16 kills and 13 digs in a 3-1 loss vs. tournament host Creighton at the Bluejay Invitational ... Allie Loitz had a breakout performance in a dominant 25-15, 25-14, 25-15 triumph over Bowling Green, putting down 10 kills off of 17 errorless swings ... Becca Strehlow charted two triple-doubles at the UC Irvine Tournament ... Jillian Bergeson charted two kills-digs double-doubles and averaged a team-high 3.67 kills at the Residence Inn Invitational.
NOTING THE WAVES: In its 40th season as a program, Pepperdine is 764-456-2 all-time ... The Waves are 322-94 all-time in their 30th season of WCC play ... Pepperdine is 335-123 when playing inside Firestone Fieldhouse.
Troy Tanner: Pepperdine men's volleyball alum Troy Tanner enters his first season with the Waves in 2014 ... Tanner was a three-time All-American as a player, and helped lead the 1985 and 1986 Waves to the NCAA championship titles ... Tanner went on to win a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul as part of the U.S. Men's National Team ... Prior to coaching at Pepperdine, Tanner served coaching stints at TStreet Volleyball Club and BYU.
HAPPY (SEMI) RETIREMENT: Nina Matthies, head coach for the Waves since 1983, stepped down following the 2013 season ... Matthies remains on staff, however, as coach of Pepperdine's two-time national championship winning sand volleyball team ... Matthies ended her 31-year tenure with the indoor squad with a 590-343 (.632) overall record and a conference record of 320-90 (.780).
INDOOR 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 27 times in 39 seasons, including 13 trips to the NCAA Championships in the last 17 seasons ... Pepperdine's best finishes in recent years came when the team made the regional final of the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and again in 2011 ... Ten players have earned AVCA or Volleyball Magazine All-American honors a combined 19 times, while six players have been dubbed the WCC Player of the Year nine total times.
2014 HALL OF FAME: Three volleyball players will be enshrined in the 2014 Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony to take place on Oct. 19 ... Katie Kimmich-Wilkins (2000-13), Sean Rooney (2002-05), and Brad Keenan (2000-03) will be inducted.
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 17 schools to have accomplished this feat — and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 23 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). 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 #54 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
