TOURNAMENT CENTRAL | BEACH VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW

MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine beach volleyball squad opens the West Coast Conference Championships tomorrow at noon at the Ocean Park Beach Sand Courts in Santa Monica, Calif.

Championship Site Address:
2400 Ocean Front Walk
Santa Monica, CA 90402

WCC CHAMPIONSHIPS - Friday and Saturday, April 22-23 | West Coast Conference Championships at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica, Calif.

COVERAGE - Follow @WavesBeachVB on Twitter for score updates throughout the 2016 campaign. Scores and recaps will be published on PepperdineSports.com at the end of each day's action. The tournament website is WCCsports.com is the official website for the WCC Women's Beach Volleyball Championship. The website will include championship information, results, and new media elements related to the event. TheW.tv will produce comprehensive coverage of the 2016 WCC Women's Beach Volleyball Championship. Content can be seen on web browsers, smart phones, tablets, and connected televisions by visiting http://TheW.tv.

2016 WEST COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS - The Waves enter the 2016 West Coast Conference Championships as the top seeded program, and as such, will receive a bye through the first round of play. Pepperdine will open the tournament in the second round against the winner of fourth-seeded Saint Mary's and fifth-seeded Pacific. Whoever wins that match will play next on Saturday. San Francisco tabbed the number two seed and Santa Clara were marked as the number three seed. Closing out the seven-seeded tournament are Loyola Marymount in the number six slot and Portland in the number seven slot. The format of the championship will be a double elimination dual tournament.

CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT - Scoring. The WCC Women's Beach Volleyball Championship will be played using a team, dual-match format, consisting of five best-of-three set doubles matches. Each doubles match shall be decided by the winner in a best two out of three sets. NCAA scoring protocol will be adhered.

PARKING - Ocean Park Beach 2400 Ocean Front Walk Santa Monica, CA 90405 (Championship Competition Courts Located Directly in Front of Perry's Café) - Enter parking at Bicknell and Ocean. There is an attendant that one can pay for a daily pass, or one go to the ticket machine if he/she is going to be less time. The tournament is south of the parking booth by 300 yards right across from Perry's Cafe.

Coming From the North on Pacific Coast Highway: Go south on Pacific Coast Highway. After reaching the California incline, watch for directional signs for beach parking and deceleration lane on the right. Competition courts are located at the corner of Hollister Avenue and Ocean Avenue / Barnard Way.

Coming From the North on Ocean Avenue: Go south on Ocean Avenue. The competition courts are located one south of Santa Monica Blvd. at corner of Hollister Avenue and Ocean Avenue / Barnard Way.

Coming from the South on Ocean Avenue: Go north on Ocean Avenue. Turn left at Hollister Avenue and drive into the 2400 parking lot.

Coming From I-­‐10: Go west on I-­‐10. Exit the freeway at 4th/5th Street exit. Stay in the left lane, taking you to 4th Street. Turn left on 4th Street and proceed to Pico Blvd. Make a right on Pico Blvd., proceed to Ocean Avenue. Turn right on Ocean Avenue and proceed to the corner of Hollister Avenue and Ocean Avenue / Barnard Way intersection.

Coming From I-­‐405: From the north or south on the 405 Freeway, take I-­‐10 West. Drive west on I-­‐10 and exit freeway at 4th/5th Street exit. Go south on 5th St. to Pico Blvd. Make a left on Ocean Avenue / Barnard Way and drive straight to the 2400 Ocean Front Walk parking lot.

Airport Distances The closest airport is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). • Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) = 8 miles • Bob Hope Airport (BUR) = 25 miles • John Wayne Airport (SNA) = 52 miles • Long Beach Airport (LGB) = 35 miles • Ontario International Airport (ONT) = 60 miles

2016 WAVES BEACH VOLLEYBALL - The Waves currently ranked second in the AVCA Coaches Poll after posting a 15-3 overall record at this point in the season. The Waves have gone 9-0 at home, 5-1 in a neutral setting and 1-2 on foreign sand so far this season. Freshmen duo Madalyn Roh and Anika Wilson and senior, junior combo Samantha Cash and Sarah Seiber have each gone 16-2 for the Waves this season. Roh and Wilson compete primarily in the four-slot with a 16-1 record there, while Cash and Seiber boast the complete 16-2 record from the number five position for the Waves. Sophomore Corinne Quiggle and freshman Skylar Caputo are stead in the three spot for the Waves with a 14-3 record from that position and 15-3 record overall. Closing out the top one and two positions for the Waves are junior Delaney Knudsen and freshman Kaity Bailey at two and senior Taylor Racich and freshman Heidi Dyer at one. Knudsen and Bailey have gone 14-4 against opponents this season while Racich and Dyer have gone 13-5 against their respected opposition.

WCC PAIR OF THE MONTH - Freshmen duo and Waves' number four pair, Anika Wilson and Madalyn Roh were the winners of the inaugural West Coast Conference pair of the month, as released by the conference office on April 7. To earn the accolade, the duo helped Pepperdine defeat six nationally ranked opponents after going undefeated at 12-0 with nine of those victories being by two-set decisions throughout the month of March.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY - The Pepperdine women's sand volleyball program has been at the forefront of the sport since it was introduced in 2012. The Waves went a perfect 14-0 in dual match play and won the inaugural AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Team Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. Pepperdine's Caitlin Racich -- the program's first-ever scholarship recipient -- and partner Summer Ross took home the pairs national crown as well. In 2013, the Waves marched back to the national title match but fell 3-2 while playing shorthanded. The Waves returned with a vengeance in 2014, going 18-1 in route to the national championship title. The Waves boast a nation-best 14 AVCA All-Americans: Lara Dykstra (2013, 14), Lilla Frederick (2012, 13), Kim Hill (2012, 13), Kelley Larsen (2014, 15), Racich (2012, 13), Ross (2012), Becca Strehlow (2014) and Kellie Woolever (2014, 15). Hill stands as the first, and to date only, student-athlete to earn AVCA All-American first team honors in both indoor and sand volleyball in a single season. Last season, the Waves worked for an appearance in the AVCA Championship semifinals, falling to Long Beach State to end the season. The Waves enter the 2016 season with a 65-8 record.

NCAA STATUS - This season marks the first season which beach volleyball will be an NCAA-sanctioned sport, with the inaugural NCAA Championships to be held in Gulf Shores, Ala. from May 6-8. Collegiate sand volleyball completed the fourth and final year as an "emerging sport" last season. It was given 10 years to gain the minimum 40 sponsoring institutions for two years in a row to be considered an NCAA Championship sport. With requirements met in record time, sand volleyball was voted into NCAA Championship Sport status earlier this year. The NCAA will host only a team championship, and not a pairs championship.

MATTHIES - Nina Matthies' retired from coaching the indoor game following the 2013 season and finishes her 31-season run with a career record of 590-343 (.632). In the span, Matthies led the Waves to 10 conference championships and 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. She is by far the WCC's all-time winningest coach and is a 10-time WCC Coach of the Year. Matthies was among the world's top players and is a member of the Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame. In 2009, Dig Magazine rated her and former partner Linda Hanley as the second-best women's beach team of all time. She won two AIAW national championships as a player at UCLA. In 2013, she was honored by her peers as the inaugural winner of the AVCA Sand Volleyball Coach of the Year award. She enters the 2016 sand season, her fifth at the helm, with a 65-8 record. She will be assisted this season once again by Marcio Sicoli, along with newcomer volunteer coach Gustavo Rocha.

SICOLI - Marcio Sicoli is in his fifth season assisting Nina Matthies in the sand, after spending six season with her as assistant indoor volleyball coach. Sicoli is highly lauded for his approach to training and served as head coach for Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings during their gold-medal run at the 2012 London Olympics. Sicoli also served as the assistant coach for the Brazilian Olympic Women's Beach Volleyball Team from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, his team of Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede took home the silver medal in Athens. He currently serves as coach to 2016 Olympic hopefuls Walsh Jennings and April Ross.

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.