Waves Hit Road for Matches at San Diego, BYU
10/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's volleyball team prepares for a challenging road trip this week with matches at West Coast Conference standings leaders San Diego and #12 BYU. The Waves face the Toreros, hot off a 3-2 upset over the Cougars, on Thursday, before making the journey to Provo for a Saturday afternoon contest.
Match 21: Pepperdine (7-13, 2-6 WCC) at San Diego (13-7, 6-2 WCC) | October 23 | 7 p.m. | Jenny Craig Pavilion | San Diego, Calif.
Match 22: Pepperdine at #12 BYU (16-3, 7-1 WCC) | October 25 | 12 p.m. (PT) | Smith Fieldhouse | Provo, Utah
COVERAGE: Watch Thursday's contest at San Diego on TheW.tv for free online ... Saturday's match at BYU will be broadcast on BYUtv, both on television and at BYUtv.com ... Live stats will be available for both matches ... Links to all available coverage can be found by clicking on a particular match on the Pepperdine women's volleyball team's schedule page at PepperdineSports.com ... Follow @PepperdineWVB for addition score updates on Twitter.
LOOKING BACK: The Waves dropped a pair of four-set decisions last week at home, falling to both Santa Clara and San Francisco ... Samantha Cash's first block vs. the Dons was career block No. 400 ... She is just the third Wave in program history to reach the milestone ... Katie Messing averaged 4.12 kills per set in the two matches.
LOOKING AHEAD: Pepperdine returns to Firestone Fieldhouse next weekend to host Portland and Gonzaga.
FIVB WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - Kim Hill, an indoor volleyball standout from 2008-11, made history on Oct. 12, 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 will play professionally in Italy this year after playing in Poland last season ... 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.
OPPONENT NOTES: BYU and San Diego sit atop the WCC standings ... USD handed BYU its first league loss of the season last week, 3-2 ... Pepperdine fell to the Cougars 3-0 inside Firestone Fieldhouse during the first meeting of the season ... This is opening match of the Pepperdine-San Diego series ... Both the Cougars and Toreros reached the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament in 2013.
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 ... She averaged 6.07 assists/set in the 6-2 offense and 11.87 in the 5-1 ... The junior leads Pepperdine in 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 402 career blocks ... She began the season in 10th place ... Victoria Adelhelm (2009-12) sits in second place with 455 career blocks ... She surpassed the 400 career blocks milestone with her first rejection against San Francisco (10/18) ... Katie Messing surpassed the 900 career kills milestone vs. Loyola Marymount and enters the week with 945 career kills ... She could become the 17th Wave to reach the 1,000 kills benchmark.
MESSING: Since returning to the starting lineup vs. BYU (9/30), Katie Messing has led the Waves with 4.09 kills/set ... She is averaging 3.00 kills/set on the season ... On the defensive side, she averages 2.14 digs/set ... On serve receive, Messing boasts the best success rate with just nine errors through 192 attempts (.953) ... 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 ranks second in Pepperdine's offense with a 2.80 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 27 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 2.59 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 run a 5-1 offense run by Becca Strehlow for the last four matches beginning with Portland (10/4) ... The Waves ran a 6-2 prior to that with Strehlow and Chanel Brown share setting duties ... Strehlow played 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 on the outside, but currently starts from the libero position .. 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.
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.
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 delivered 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 764-458-2 all-time ... The Waves are 322-96 all-time in their 30th season of WCC play ... Pepperdine is 335-125 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 were enshrined in the 2014 Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony to take place on Oct. 19 ... Three-time WCC Player of the Year and three-time All-American Katie Kimmich-Wilkins (2000-13), Sean Rooney (2002-05), and Brad Keenan (2000-03) were 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.
