MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team hits the road once again this week for the second-to-last road trip of the 2019 regular season. The Waves will trek to Gonzaga and Portland on Thursday and Saturday for the next installment of West Coast Conference play.
MATCH #22 — Thursday (October 31) at Charlotte Y. Martin Centre in Spokane, Wash.: Pepperdine at Gonzaga at 6 p.m.
MATCH #23 — Saturday (November 2) at Chiles Center in Portland, Ore.: Pepperdine at Portland at 12 p.m. | WCC Network
LIVE — Live stream and live stats will be available for all matches, with most West Coast Conference matches going live on the WCC Network.
Links 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.
SQUAD GOALS — The Waves are currently sitting alone at 3rd place in the West Coast Conference with a few weeks left to play after going 7-3 in the league and 11-10 overall at this point in the season. As a team, Pepperdine has marked 13.38 kills/set on a .239 success rate, along with 12.26 assists/set, 1.61 aces/set, 13.89 digs/st and 2.12 blocks/set. The team allows opponents 12.33 kills/set on a .223 output, with 11.68 assists/set, 0.98 aces/set, 13.87 digs/set and 2.20 blocks/set on average.
Shannon Scully,
Hannah Frohling and
Rachel Ahrens lead in the kill efforts with 3.14, 2.96 and 2.77 kills/set respectively. Scully has marked 264 kills on 743 swings for a .233 clip, as well as helping with 22 aces for 0.26 aces/set and is second on the team with 259 digs for 3.08 digs/set. Frohling has marked 166 kills on 487 swings after coming on the court late in the season. She also adds 0.32 aces/set, 1.77 digs/set and 0.46 blocks/set. Ahrens leads the team with 0.40 aces/set after posting 33 this season thus far. She also has marked 230 kills on 548 swings for a .243 success rate, while adding 0.69 blocks/set and 0.55 digs/set.
Tarah Wylie and
Alli O'Harra lead at the net for the squad, with 1.06 and 0.80 blocks/set respectively. Wylie leads the team with 89 total blocks, including 12 solo rejections, while also adding a solid 2.43 kills/set on a team-best .330 hitting percentage. She has also tallied 21 aces for 0.25 aces/set for the Waves. O'Harra has amassed 66 total blocks with five solo jobs, and has tabbed 1.49 kills/st on a .238 output.
Isabel Zelaya has been the primary playmaker for the Waves, though
Tayah Mahi has seen her fair share of action on the court as well. Zelaya leads the team with 625 total assists, averaging 9.62 assists/set, while amassing 0.40 blocks/set and 1.97 digs/set as well. Mahi has tabbed 8.58 assists/set with 283 assists this season. She has also posted 1.58 digs/set for Pepperdine.
Hana Lishman has started every match in the libero position for the Waves, while
Madison Shields is the first off the bench for her team in defensive support this season. Lishman leads the team with 293 total digs to average 3.49 digs/set and she has also amassed 21 aces for 0.25 aces/set this season. Shields is good for 1.84 digs/set and has marked 149 total digs this season thus far.
LAST WEEK, TODAY — The Waves had a bittersweet week last week, starting things off by upsetting then-ranked #22 San Diego with a sweep at home on ESPNU. Then-ranked #12 BYU then took a three-set win of their own over Pepperdine to close out the week.
Against USD, the Waves led with 8.0 blocks and eight aces to the opposition's 2.0 blocks and two aces. Although the Toreros posted 45 kills to the Waves' 44, Pepperdine was more successful on the attack with a .309 hitting percentage as opposed to USD's .279 output.
Hannah Frohling and
Shannon Scully led the Waves' attack efforts with 12 and 10 kills on .294 and .375 hitting percentages respectively. Scully also marked nine digs and an ace, while Frohling was good for two blocks including a solo and an ace.
Rachel Ahrens impressed with a tied-career high six aces, along with six kills and four blocks.
Tarah Wylie amassed nine digs on a .467 clip, with two blocks and
Alli O'Harra posted four blocks and six kills on a .417 output.
Isabel Zelaya led with 37 assists and added seven digs, while
Hana Lishman marked eight digs as well.
Against BYU, the Waves led with 8.0 blocks to the Cougars 5.0, while each side posted four aces. BYU had the edge in the other categories, however, putting up 53 kills on a .333 clip with 40 digs, compared to Pepperdine's 34 kills on a .190 output with 30 digs. Ahrens led with 10 kills and added three blocks and Wylie had a team-high five blocks including two solo jobs. Zelaya was good for 26 assists and added a team-best eight digs and Lishman led the squad with three aces and put in seven digs as well.
THE COMPETITION — The Waves lead the Bulldogs all-time with a 57-8 overall record. Pepperdine first went up against the Zags in 1987 and won 10-straight throughout. The team then went on a 34-match winning streak from 1997-2013. Last season, Pepperdine won both with a four-set win on the road and a three-set win at home. This season, the Bulldogs have gone 6-15 overall and 0-9 in WCC action. The Zags are currently on a 14-match losing streak, including a 3-0 loss to the Waves in Malibu in early October.
Pepperdine leads Portland with a 59-6 all-time record against. The Waves and Pilots first faced in 1987 when the Waves won the first match in straight-sets on the road, and continued to win the following nine-consecutive matches. The longest Pepperdine winning streak against the Portland occurred from 1995-2015 when the Waves won 41-straight matches against. This past year, the Waves won both with a four-set final at home and a three-set win on the road. This season, the Pilots have gone 11-9 overall and 3-6 in the league so far. Last week, UP fell in five to Santa Clara, but swept Gonzaga to close the week and earlier this season the Waves downed the Pilots in a four-set match in Malibu.
