Pepperdine Travels to San Francisco and Santa Clara
11/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's volleyball team plays its final two road matches of the regular season this week, playing at San Francisco and #25 Santa Clara. Following the road trip, the Waves return to Malibu to host their final three matches of 2014.
Match 26: Pepperdine (9-16, 4-9 WCC) at San Francisco (12-14, 5-9 WCC) | November 13 | 7 p.m. | War Memorial Gym | San Francisco, Calif.
Match 27: Pepperdine at #25 Santa Clara (20-7, 10-4 WCC) | November 15 | 1 p.m. | Leavey Center | Santa Clara, Calif.
COVERAGE: Watch Thursday's contest live on TheW.tv, the official online station of the West Coasts Conference ... A live video stream, produced by SantaClaraBroncos.com, will also be available on Saturday ... Links to all video and live stats 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 have won two of their last three, sweeping both Portland and Gonzaga before falling in three to Loyola Marymount last Saturday ... Senior Katie Messing has averaged 4.44 kills/set in those three contests, followed by sophomore Jillian Bergeson with 3.22 ... Pepperdine's defensive game has been on point as of late, with the team averaging an impressive 15.44 digs/set and senior Samantha Cash averaging 1.56 blocks in the last two weeks.
LOOKING FORWARD: Pepperdine returns to Firestone Fieldhouse for the final three matches of the season, hosting Pacific (Nov. 20), Saint Mary's (Nov. 22, Senior Day) and San Diego (Nov. 25) ... On Senior Day, the Waves will recognize the careers and contributions of Chanel Brown, Samantha Cash, Katie Messing and Jazmine Orozco.
LOOKING FURTHER BACK: Despite returning from the San Diego-BYU road trip without a win, Pepperdine produced many positive results against two of the conference's top 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 ... Katie Messing sent down a career-high 23 kills in the match ... The Waves have been on the upswing since the BYU match and have out-killed opponents 14.38 (.270)-13.00 (.237) since then ... Pepperdine also holds an edge in assists, aces, digs and blocks in the last four matches.
CHECK THE RECORD: Katie Messing became the 17th Wave in program history, dating back to 1975, to become a member of the 1,000 Kills Club on Nov. 1 with her fifth kill of the match against Gonzaga ... She enters this week's match with 1,018 kills, tied with Carrie Romer (1993-96) on the all-time chart for 16th place ... 1999 AVCA All-American Jaime Hill sits in 15th place with 1,023 career kills ... Melissa Snow (1998-01) sits in 14th with 1,052 kills ... Samantha Cash continues to move up the ladder, and now ranks third in Pepperdine program history with 425 career blocks ... She began the season in 10th place ... Victoria Adelhelm (2009-12) sits in second place with 455 career blocks ... Cash surpassed the 400 career blocks milestone with her first rejection against San Francisco (10/18) ... Cash also broke into the single-season records recently with her ace tally ... With 34 aces this season, Cash currently ranks eighth since the rally scoring era began in 2001 ... Recent Pepperdine Hall of Fame inductee Katie Wilkins holds the record for her 2003 total of 48 ... Four more aces will put Cash in a four-way tie for fourth place.
OPPONENT NOTES: San Francisco has lost five of its last six after returning from last week's Portland-Gonzaga road trip with two 3-2 losses ... Despite the recent slide, the Dons boast some impressive victories this season with sweeps over Santa Clara and San Diego at home ... USF is 7-2 at home, but just 1-10 on the road ... Katarina Pilepic paces the offense with 3.46 kills/set ... Santa Clara broke into the AVCA Top-25 rankings this week and is 20-7 after winning seven of their last eight ... Although the Broncos lost handily at top-15 BYU, they returned the favor, upending the Cougars 25-14, 25-21, 25-15 on Nov. 1 in Santa Clara, Calif. ... SCU followed that up with a 3-2 win over San Diego ... Nikki Hess and Sabrina Clayton both average 3.40 kills/set or more to lead the Broncos.
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 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 11.03 in the 5-1 ... The junior leads Pepperdine in digs (3.46 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 4.29 kills/set ... She is averaging 3.42 kills/set on the season ... Over the last four matches, Messing has put down 4.85 kills/set ... On the defensive side, she averages 2.18 digs/set and boasts five kills-digs double-doubles in 2014 ... On serve receive, Messing boasts the best success rate with just 15 errors through 291 attempts (.948) ... 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 with 23 against BYU (10/25) ... Prior to that, Messing had twice sent 20 kills to the floor in a single match.
COUNT ON CASH: Samantha Cash has turned her offensive output up a notch as of late, contributing 10.0 or more points in six of the last seven matches ... She's tallied 10.0 or more points 12 times in 2014 ... Cash hit for a season-high .733 hitting percentage against Portland (10/30), terminating 11 kills off of 15 errorless swings ... She's hit over .600 three times this season and over .400 on seven occasions ... From the service line, she leads the Waves with 34 aces ... Cash has been credited with at least two blocks in all but two matches this season and has earned four or more roofs in 14 contests.
SWINGING SOPHOMORES: Sophomore outside hitters Jillian Bergeson and Gaby Palmeri have emerged as offensive leaders after playing different roles last season ... Bergeson ranks second in Pepperdine's offense with a 2.74 kills/set average after serving as the starting libero in 2013 ... The Texas native has also shined from the service line with 31 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 2.46 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 ... She went 9-for-17 with no errors against Gonzaga two weeks ago ... Palmeri led 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 nine 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 ... Jillian Bergeson, Gaby Palmeri and Katie Messing have held down the three pin hitting positions, with Brown serving as a backup ... Brown also provides serving support ... Allie Loitz has also 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 ... Ashley Morgan has made her way into the rotation as a defensive specialist for Palmeri in the back row ... Katie Lespier has also earned the start as 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 did not make the top-10 finalist cut.
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.
NOTING THE WAVES: In its 40th season as a program, Pepperdine is 766-461-2 all-time ... The Waves are 324-99 all-time in their 30th season of WCC play ... Pepperdine is 337-125 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.
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.
