MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team takes a five-match winning streak and hits the road this week for a pair of challenging West Coast Conference matches against San Diego and top-ranked BYU on Thursday and Saturday respectively.
 
The Waves are currently placed 2nd in the WCC standings this week and is receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll, while BYU sits at the top of both of those lists.  San Diego is currently 3^rd in the WCC this week as well.
 
MATCH #19 — Thursday (October 18) at Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego, Calif.: Pepperdine at San Diego at 8 p.m. | Watch: ESPNU
 
MATCH #20 — Saturday (October 20) at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah: Pepperdine at #1 BYU at 12 p.m. | Watch: BYU.tv
 
LIVE — The match against San Diego will air on ESPNU, while the match at BYU will be streamed on BYtUv.  All home matches will stream live on TheW.tv.  Direct links for all matches, including live statistics can be found on PepperdineWaves.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA — Follow @WavesVolleyball on Twitter for updates and check out PepperdineWaves.com and Facebook (/WavesVolleyball) for releases and more information.
 
WCC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK — The Waves have had two players earn WCC Player of the Week honors, with Hannah Frohling achieving the feat on September 14 and Blossom Sato doing so on October 15.  Sato garnered the most recent honors after leading the Waves to a sweep over PCH Cup rival LMU.  She propelled her team to three 25-18 set wins over the Lions, dishing out 37 assists for 12.33 assists/set en route to a .371 collective team hitting percentage.  She also posted 1.67 digs/set with five digs, 0.67 blocks/set with two block assists and 0.33 total points.  She assisted the Waves to 46 kills with only 10 errors on 97 swings and spread out the offense to five players hitting above a .312 hitting percentage with six kills or more.  Two players hit for double-figure kills with 14 on a .357 clip and 13 on a .346 output respectively. She also helped the middles to seven kills on a .583 percentage and six kills on a .417 output respectively.
 
After propelling the Waves to a pair of road wins to open WCC action earlier this season, junior outside hitter Frohling garnered the Waves' first West Coast Conference weekly honor of the season.  She led the Waves to a 3-0 win over Portland, a team that was previously undefeated at 12-0 before the match, and then continued to help the Waves to a four-set win at Gonzaga to close the weekend.   In seven sets played, she posted 4.79 points/set with 3.71 kills/set, 0.71 aces/set, 1.43 digs/set and 0.71 blocks/set for the Waves.  Overall, she put down 26 kills on a .393 success rate, along with five aces, 10 digs and five blocks for 33.5 points. 
 
SQUAD GOALS — With a 7-1 record to open West Coast Conference play, the Waves have opened league action with the best record since 2011.  In that year, the team went 15-1 overall to win the title outright, and kicked things off with a 13-match winning streak to start. 
 
Pepperdine is 13-5 overall this season.  As a team, Pepperdine produces 14.05 kills/set on a .275 success rate along with 13.31 assists/set, 1.69 aces/set, 14.11 digs/set and 2.15 blocks/set.  The Waves have allowed opponents 11.43 kills/set on a .184 output, along with 11.02 assists/set, 1.03 aces/set, 13.34 digs/set and 2.11 blocks/set. 
 
As a team, the Waves rank in the top-25 of four statistical categories: 16th with both 1.69 aces/set and 13.31 assists/set, 17th with 0.274 hitting percentage and 24th with 14.05 kills/set.  Blossom Sato and Hannah Frohling rank in the top-25 of one statistical category apiece with Sato ranking 17th with 11.33 assist/set and Frohling ranking 23rd with 0.47 aces/set so far this season.  Altogether, six players rank in eight different categories this week.
 
CANNONS — Hannah Frohling, Rachel Ahrens and Shannon Scully lead the Waves with 3.43, 3.27 and 3.07 kills/set averages respectively.  All three have totaled over 180-kills so far this season.  Frohling has amassed 199 kills with 58 errors on 479 swings for a .294 success rate.  She also leads the team with 0.47 aces/set and adds 1.05 digs/set and 0.50 blocks/set each match on average.  Ahrens has marked 196 smashes with 61 errors on 424 attempts to post a .318 clip.  She adds 0.25 aces/set, 1.35 digs/set and 0.78 blocks/set each match for the Waves.  Scully has put up 184 kills with 72 errors on 522 swings for a .215 output.  She adds 0.33 aces/set, 2.97 digs/set and 0.38 blocks/set. 
 
MALIBU ROOFING COMPANY — Alli O'Harra and Tarah Wylie have been the main managers in the Malibu Roofing Company, amassing 1.24 and 0.89 blocks/set respectively.  O'Harra has marked 67 total blocks with five solo rejections, and adds 1.70 kills/set on a .287 success rate, 0.11 aces/set and 0.35 digs/set.  Wylie has been solid with 54 total rejections, including three solo jobs, while adding 2.05 kills/set on a .341 clip as well as 0.52 digs/set and 0.13 aces/set.
 
PLAYMAKERS — Blossom Sato is Pepperdine's primary playmaker, ranking 17th nationally with 11.33 assists/set.  She has dished out 691 total assists this season thus far, while ranking third on the team with 15 total aces for 0.25 aces/set.  She also has helped her team to 14.05 kills/set and a .275 success rate on the offensive, which both rank nationally.  She has marked 0.34 kills/set and 2.21 digs/set.
 
CAN YOU DIG IT? — Hana Lishman has started in the libero position in all matches this season, totaling 220 digs for 3.61 digs/set. She has also added 47 assists for 0.77 assists/set and 10 aces for the Waves.  In her first match this season, she was solid in the back line with 26 digs, while against Santa Clara in the middle of the season she posted 21.  In 12 matches this season she has marked double-figure digs with two over the 20-dig mark.  Madison Shields, Jaiden Farr and Julia DiBona have also entered matches for defensive support, amassing 1.28, 0.90 and 0.88 digs/set respectively.
 
LAST WEEK, TODAY — The Waves had one sole match on the docket last week, a PCH Cup rival match-up against cross-town rival Loyola Marymount on Saturday.  The Lions and Waves were each receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll last week, with LMU having six votes and the Waves two.  Despite that fact, Pepperdine came out strong and made quick work of Loyola Marymount, amassing a straight 3-0 sweep over the Lions with three-consecutive 25-18 set scores.  The Waves amassed 46 kills on a .371 success rate, while allowing only 29 kills on a .088 clip to the Lions.  Pepperdine also led with 43 assists, 34 digs and 12.0 team blocks, while LMU marked 29 assists, 32 digs and 6.0 team blocks.  Each side amassed four aces apiece.
 
Blossom Sato highlighted the match after dishing out 37 assists on the team's .371 output.  She spread the offensive to two players with double-figure kills and all five attackers with above a .312 success rate.  She added five digs and two blocks as well.  Hannah Frohling led the team with 14 kills on a .357 output, along with an ace and two blocks.  Rachel Ahrens followed with 13 kills on a .346 clip, along with two aces, five digs and five blocks.  Tarah Wylie was good for seven kills on a team-high .583 hitting percentage, along with five blocks.  Alli O'Harra and Shannon Scully each posted six kills with a .417 and .312 hitting output respectively.  O'Harra also led the squad with seven blocks and Scully led with 13 digs and added three blocks.  Hana Lishman added eight digs and five assists into the mix as well.
 
THE COMPETITION — Pepperdine leads San Diego all-time with a 40-30 record, dating back to the 1979 season when the Waves won a 3-0 match in Malibu.  From 1979-92, the Waves won 20-straight matches over the Toreros, including the first 14 by sweeps.  Pepperdine went on another winning streak from 1998-2003 with 11-consecutive wins.  The most recent streak came at nine-wins by San Diego from 2012-16.  Last season, USD won both matches, with a five-set thriller in Firestone and a four-set win in San Diego.  This season, USD is currently 3rd in the WCC standings with a 9-9 overall record and a 6-2 WCC output this season.  Last week, the Toreros swept both Santa Clara and San Francisco on the road.
 
BYU is the only West Coast Conference school that has a winning record against Pepperdine all-time.  The Cougars lead the Waves with a 25-7 all-time, dating back to the 1976 season when the teams first faced and the Waves won 2-0.  The longest Waves' winning streak came from 2000-11 where the Waves won four-straight.  Currently, the Cougars have won 13-consecutive matches since 2012, including two wins last season in either four or three sets and one win in three in Malibu this season. This season, the Cougars are ranked No. 1 nationally and have gone 18-0 overall and 8-0 in the WCC play with a pair of road sweeps over San Francisco and Santa Clara last weekend.