Women's Volleyball Entertains Portland and Gonzaga
10/28/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's volleyball team returns to Firestone Fieldhouse this week to host Portland and Gonzaga. The Waves tangle with the Pilots on Thursday, Oct. 30 before concluding the week on Saturday, Nov. 1 against the Bulldogs.
Match 23: Pepperdine (7-15, 2-8 WCC) vs. Portland (5-15, 0-9 WCC) | October 30 | 7 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif.
Match 24: Pepperdine vs. Gonzaga (14-6, 5-4 WCC) | November 1 | 1 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN: The Waves will celebrate Halloween during their Thursday night match vs. Portland ... Fans and students are encouraged to wear their costumes ... A Halloween-edition Twitter contest, open to Pepperdine students, will take place with four tickets to Six Flags Magic Mountain up for grabs.
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 returning from last week's San Diego-BYU road trip without a win, Pepperdine produced many positive results against the conference's top two teams ... The Waves are now just one of three teams (joining #2 Washington and San Francisco) to win a set against nationally-ranked BYU inside Smith Fieldhouse in 2014 after a hard-fought 3-1 loss last Saturday ... Katie Messing sent down a career-high 23 kills, and is now just 22 shy of reaching the 1,000 career kills milestone ... The senior is on track to become just the 17th Wave in program history to reach the benchmark.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Waves spend the next two weeks on the road, with matches at Loyola Marymount, San Francisco and Santa Clara ... Pepperdine concludes the regular season inside Firestone Fieldhouse, playing Pacific (Nov. 20), Saint Mary's (Nov. 22) and San Diego (Nov. 25).
CHECK THE RECORD: Katie Messing surpassed the 900 career kills milestone vs. Loyola Marymount and enters the week with 978 career kills ... She is just 22 kills shy of becoming the 17th Wave to reach the 1,000 kills benchmark ... Samantha Cash continues to move up the ladder, and now ranks third in Pepperdine program history with 411 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).
OPPONENT NOTES: Portland is still in search of its first WCC victory in 27 matches and is just 1-42 in conference play since 2012 ... The Pilots own a 5-15 record in 2014 ... Gonzaga has turned heads in the conference this year with a 5-4 record ... Overall, the Bulldogs are 14-6 ... Savannah Blinn leads the WCC and ranks seventh in the nation with 4.90 kills/set.
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 is averaging 10.91 in the 5-1 ... The junior leads Pepperdine in digs (3.45 d/s) ... Strehlow was an AVCA All-American honorable mention in indoor last season, and a first-team All-American in sand volleyball.
MESSING: Since returning to the starting lineup vs. BYU (9/30), Katie Messing has led the Waves with 4.24 kills/set ... She is averaging 3.24 kills/set on the season ... On the defensive side, she averages 2.12 digs/set ... On serve receive, Messing boasts the second best success rate with just 13 errors through 244 attempts (.952) ... The 6-foot-4 outside hitter led Pepperdine in kills as a junior with a 3.54 kills/set average ... She set a new career high in kills on Saturday with 23 against BYU ... Prior to that, Messing had twice sent 20 kills to the floor in a single match.
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 2.69 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 ... Palmeri, in her first season as an on-court regular, has also impressed ... She ranks third behind Bergeson and Messing with 2.45 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 six matches beginning with Portland (10/4) ... The Waves ran a 6-2 prior to that with Strehlow and Chanel Brown sharing 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.
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 ... 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.
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 ... Cash was not selected as a top-10 finalist, announced earlier this week.
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 764-460-2 all-time ... The Waves are 322-98 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.
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.
