NOTESMALIBU, Calif. - The weeks keep moving forward and the now 2nd-ranked Pepperdine beach volleyball team has a big week coming up, with five duals to be played between the Baden Invitational hosted at Long Beach State and the Zuma Classic at Zuma Beach on Thursday and Saturday. All the Baden Invitational matches will air live on FloVolleyball.

DUAL 5 - No. 2 Pepperdine (3-1) vs. No. 6 Long Beach State (8-1) | Baden Invitational | Thursday, March 16 at the LBSU San Courts in Long Beach, Calif., 11:30 a.m. | Watch: FloVolleyball

DUAL 6 - PCH CUP BATTLE: No. 2 Pepperdine vs. Loyola Marymount (4-4) | Baden Invitational | Thursday, March 16 at the LBSU San Courts in Long Beach, Calif., 1 p.m. | Watch: FloVolleyball

DUAL 7 - No. 2 Pepperdine vs. Cal State LA (0-5) | Zuma Classic | Saturday, March 18 at Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif., 9 a.m.

DUAL 8 - No. 2 Pepperdine vs. No. 10 Arizona State (2-1) | Zuma Classic | Saturday, March 18 at Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif., 11 a.m.

DUAL 9 - No. 2 Pepperdine vs. TCU (3-2) | Zuma Classic | Saturday, March 18 at Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif., 1 p.m.

COVERAGE - The Baden Invitational duals will air live on FloVolleyball. Follow @WavesBeachVB on Twitter and Facebook for live updates before, during and after matches. Also, go to PepperdineWaves.com for updates, recaps, results and more.

LOOKING AHEAD - After the busy week, the Waves will continue action with a pair of road bouts at CSUN against both the Matadors and Colorado Mesa on March 23. After that, Pepperdine will return home to Zuma Beach to host CSU Bakersfield and Cal Poly on March 25.

THE NO. 2 WAVES - The Waves moved up to the No. 2-slot in the AVCA Coaches Poll this week after defeating previously ranked No. 2 Florida State with a 3-2 result last week. Pepperdine advanced to 3-1 overall with the two victories at the East Meets West Invitational. The Waves now possess a 1-1 record on home sand and a perfect 2-0 record in a neutral setting, with no true away matches played yet.

With six pairs that have competed for the team thus far, the Waves have gone 11-9 to earn a .550 winning percentage in individual dual matches, all of which have been played against teams from top-7 nationally ranked competitors. Delaney Knudsen and Madalyn Roh have posted a 2-2 record from the No. 1 position, with Corinne Quiggle and Brittany Howard holding tough with a 3-1 record from the No. 2-slot. Skylar Caputo and Heidi Dyer and Anika Wilson and Deahna Kraft have gone 2-2 from the No. 3 and 4 positions. Gigi Hernandez and Katty Workman and Kaity Bailey and Sarah Seiber have all played at the No. 5 position for the Waves, with Hernandez and Workman going 1-2 overall and Bailey and Seiber posting a 1-0 record after their first outing on the sand this season.

EAST MEETS WEST INVITATIONAL - The Waves had an eventful outing at the East Meets West Invitational hosted by UCLA at the Manhattan Beach Pier this past weekend, upsetting 2nd-ranked Florida State 3-2 and besting 7th-ranked Georgia State 4-1. The teams from the west outplayed the teams from the east 13-3 throughout the two-day tournament. Pepperdine participated only in the second day of the tournament with the matches against FSU and GSU. Pepperdine advanced the overall record to 3-1 this season, with all matches played against top-7 nationally ranked teams.

In the win over the Seminoles, Anika Wilson and Deahna Kraft won the first Waves' match of the day with a two-set victory on court four. Then, the Waves' No. 2 duo, Corinne Quiggle and Brittany Howard, picked up a three-set win to make it a 2-0 dual. The Seminoles then earned wins on courts three and five to tie the match and put all eyes on court one with Delaney Knudsen and Madalyn Roh. The Waves won the first set 28-26 before falling in the second 18-21 to make it a 1-1 match. In the third set, the pair worked to an 11-11 tie, before posting four points to secure the 15-11 match-win and clinch the overall dual.

In the second match of the day, Pepperdine picked up three big wins to start the afternoon. Quiggle and Howard on two, Kaity Bailey and Sarah Seiber on five, and Wilson and Kraft on four picked up those three two-set wins to clinch. GSU then won on court three, but the Waves' one's pair once again prevailed with a three-set win to finish the day with a 4-1 dual victory.

DiG MAGAZINE PAIR OF THE WEEK/NCAA TOP 10 - The Waves have earned the No. 7-spot in the #NCAATop10 segment for the last two weeks. First, Corinne Quiggle and Brittany Howard earned the honor after defeating UCLA's No. 2 pair en route to the 3-2 Waves' win. Then, Pepperdine's No. 1 pair Delaney Knudsen and Madalyn Roh earned the honor with the duo's dual-clinching point over then-No. 2 Florida State at the East Meets West Invitational. Knudsen and Roh then garnered the inaugural DiG Magazine's National Pairs of the Week honor after going 2-0 over the weekend, propelling the No. 3 Waves to a 3-2 upset over No. 2 Florida State and a 4-1 victory over No. 7 Georgia State at the East Meets West Invitational in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

In the first win over FSU, the No. 1-pair clinched the match after a 2-2 tie, battling with Leigh Andrew and Brooke Kuhlman. The Waves split the first two sets, first with a hard-fought 28-26 first set and an 18-21 second set. The duo then worked for an 11-11 tie in the third, before plastering four points on for the 15-11 match win and dual-clincher. Later in the day, Knudsen and Roh fell by a close 23-25 result in the first set, but took the second 21-18 to once again send things to a third. After a close bout, including a 14-14 tie, the Waves overcame Delaney Rohan and Chelsea Ross with a 16-14 third set to finish the overall dual with a 4-1 Waves' win.

OPPONENT NOTES - The Waves have faced Long Beach State more than any other team in the program's brief history, amassing a 15-2 overall record against the 49ers since 2012. Pepperdine went on an eight-match winning streak from 2012-13 and won all three matches played in 2016 by straight-set 5-0 results. LBSU has gone 8-1 to start this season and currently ranks 6th in the AVCA coaches poll. Last week, the 49ers defeated Florida International, LSU and TCU. Pepperdine has faced off with PCH Cup rivals Loyola Marymount a total of five times, winning all matches including three by 5-0 marks. Last season, the teams faced twice, once at Zuma Beach and once in the West Coast Conference Championship semifinals, winning both 5-0. This season, the Lions have gone 4-4 and are receiving votes in the national coaches poll. Last week, the Lions lost two matches to No. 5 Hawai'i and defeated No. 12 Stetson twice.

Pepperdine kicks off the Zuma Classic with Cal State LA, a team the Waves have never faced. CSLA opened the season with a 0-5 record and dropping the team's last three matches 5-0 to Long Beach State, Concordia and Stetson. The Waves have never faced Arizona State either. The Sun Devils have gone 2-1 this season and rank No. 10 in the AVCA coaches poll with wins against Jacksonville and No. 7 Arizona, losing only to No. 5 Hawai'i. Pepperdine closes out the busy week with TCU, another team receiving votes in the coaches poll. The Waves and Horned Frogs have battled once in 2013 on neutral soil when Pepperdine took a 5-0 win. This season, TCU has gone 3-2 overall after collecting wins from Colorado Mesa, Loyola Marymount and New Mexico and falling to Grand Canyon and Long Beach State.

PCH CUP BATTLE -- An annual all-sport competition between two local rivals that are separated by just 19.1 miles of scenic coastline, the Wells Fargo PCH Cup is in its seventh season of existence. Pepperdine won the first five cups. A home win is worth one point, a road victory is worth 1.5 points. In the seven years since the cup first began, the Waves have won six-out-of-seven years, including last season's win 11.5 to 7.5.

PRESEASON HONORS & POLLS - The Waves ranked 4th in the AVCA preseason poll and were picked as the favorite to finish as the West Coast Conference Champions again by the WCC coaches. Pepperdine was also charted in the No. 4 spot on DiG Magazine. Five Waves, senior Delaney Knudsen, junior Corine Quiggle and sophomores Heidi Dyer, Skylar Caputo and Madalyn Roh earned Preseason All-WCC accolades.

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 a position in the field of eight for the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores, Ala., finishing 5th overall. The Waves enter the 2017 season with a 85-13 record.

NCAA STATUS - This season marks the second season which beach volleyball will be an NCAA-sanctioned sport, with the NCAA Championships to be held again in Gulf Shores, Ala. from May 5-7. Last season in the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores after an eight-team field of competition, USC took the first-ever championship title. Previously, collegiate sand volleyball, completed the fourth and final year as an "emerging sport" in the 2015 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 in 2015. 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 and in 2015 was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame and earned the USA Volleyball's All-Time Great Female Beach Player award. 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 2017 beach season, her sixth at the helm, with a 85-13 record. She will be assisted this season once again by Marcio Sicoli, along with second-year volunteer coach Gustavo Rocha.

SICOLI - Marcio Sicoli is in his sixth 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 as well as the Walsh Jennings and April Ross bronze medal run at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 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.

ZUMA BEACH - The Waves call Zuma Beach "home," practicing and hosting all home events at one of Malibu's most picturesque locations. Courts are located just west of Point Dume, between Towers 2 & 3 or at the 29800 block of the Pacific Coast Highway.

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 25 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 No. 50 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.