Waves Close 2014 With Three Matches in Malibu
11/19/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's volleyball team wraps up the 2014 season this week, hosting matches against Pacific, Saint Mary's and San Diego. The Waves tangle with the Tigers on Thursday night, before celebrating Senior Day on Saturday afternoon vs. the Gaels. Pepperdine then hosts a final match the following Tuesday, welcoming in the Toreros.
Match 28: Pepperdine (11-16, 6-9 WCC) vs. Pacific (21-7, 10-5 WCC) | November 20 | 7 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif.
Match 29: Pepperdine vs. Saint Mary's (9-16, 5-10 WCC) | November 22 | 1 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif. | Senior Day
Match 30: Pepperdine vs. San Diego (16-11, 9-6 WCC) | November 25 | 5 p.m. | Firestone Fieldhouse | Malibu, Calif.
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.
CELEBRATING SENIORS - Pepperdine will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday, honoring the careers and contributions of Chanel Brown, Samantha Cash and Katie Messing ... Jazmine Orozco, a 2012 AVCA All-American and current student-athlete assistant, is also nearing the end of her Pepperdine career ... Cash and Messing were instrumental in the Waves' 2011 run to the NCAA Regional Final ... Cash was the 2011 WCC Freshman of the Year ... Messing joined Cash on the WCC All-Freshman team ... Cash, Messing and Orozco helped the Waves return to the NCAA Tournament the following year ... Brown joined the Waves in 2014 as a transfer graduate student ... She led Florida to two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011 ... At Pepperdine, she's been a valuable tool in Coach Tanner's arsenal, and has providing leadership, setting, attacking and serving support.
LOOKING BACK: The Waves went 2-0 in their final road trip of the season, topping both San Francisco and #25 Santa Clara in four sets ... Becca Strehlow dished an impressive 14.50 assists/set against USF, and Pepperdine out-killed the Dons 69-47 ... Katie Messing put down 19 kills in the contest ... Pepperdine followed that up with a low-error night against the Broncos to win 3-1 ... Jillian Bergeson led in kills with 12, while Samantha Cash scored a team-best 14.0 points behind 11 kills and six blocks ... Chanel Brown delivered seven total aces in the two matches ... Pepperdine has won four of its last five matches.
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 four teams (joining #2 Washington, San Francisco and San Diego) 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 won four of five matches... Pepperdine has out-killed opponents 14.62 (.282)-13.19 (.236) and out-blocked teams 2.40-1.83 in the last six matches ... The Waves also hold a statistical edge in assist and aces in that time frame.
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 matches with 1,048 kills, ranking in at 15th on the program's all-time list ... Melissa Snow (1998-01) sits in 14th with 1,052 kills, while Anna Witkowski (1995-98) ranks 13th and within reach with 1,094 kills ... Samantha Cash currently ranks third in Pepperdine program history with 435 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: Pacific is tied for second place with LMU in the WCC standings with a 10-5 league record ... Aside from being swept in the season series by BYU and San Diego, the Tigers have only lost to Santa Clara in WCC play ... Lexi Elman leads the offense with 3.54 kills/set ... Saint Mary's ranks eighth in the league with a 5-10 record ... The Gaels have won two of their last three, topping San Diego and Portland, both in five ... Although San Diego has sat near the top of the conference standings for most of the season, the team has lost four of their last five and now sits in fifth place ... The Toreros are 9-6 in league play.
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 11.21 in the 5-1 ... The junior leads Pepperdine in digs (3.47 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 4.20 kills/set ... She is averaging 3.46 kills/set on the season ... On the defensive side, she averages 2.16 digs/set and boasts five kills-digs double-doubles in 2014 ... On serve receive, Messing boasts the best success rate with just 19 errors through 360 attempts (.947) ... 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 eighth of the last nine matches ... She's tallied 10.0 or more points 14 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 16 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 2.81 kills/set average after serving as the starting libero in 2013 ... The Texas native has also shined from the service line with 33 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 768-461-2 all-time ... The Waves are 326-99 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.
