MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team faces a pair of nationally ranked opponents on the road this week as the Waves challenge #5 BYU and #19 San Diego on Thursday and Saturday.
 
MATCH #23 — Thursday (November 11) at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah: Pepperdine at #5 BYU at 6 p.m. PT. | Watch: BYUTV
 
MATCH #24 — Saturday (November 13) at Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego, Calif.: Pepperdine at #19 San Diego at 12 p.m. PT. | Watch: WCC Network.
 
LIVE COVERAGE — Live stats will be available for all road and home matches.  The match at BYU will air on BYUTV and the match at USD will air 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.
 
MILESTONES & RECORD WATCH — This season, in the second match against PCH Cup rival LMU, Rachel Ahrens amassed four aces, which put her career total at 148 to become the Pepperdine women's volleyball program's all-time career ace leader.  It was an accomplishment that has not changed in the record books since Nicole Sanderson achieved the top spot with 147 aces from 1994 to 1997.  Ahrens has since amassed 150 aces.  She is also one ace away from tying and two away from overtaking her own single-season rally scoring era ace record which stands at 49 aces - something she accomplished in the 2019 season.  
 
Additionally, Ahrens surpassed the 1,000 career-kill mark against Washington earlier this season.  She became the 21st Wave to have accomplished the feat and now with 1,273 kills, she ranks 9th in the Pepperdine women's volleyball career record books.  Against Saint Mary's at home this season, she also tabbed a career-best 30 kills, an attacking output that has only been accomplished twice by a Pepperdine women's volleyball player, and only now three times in program history.  The last two times Waves have hit for more than 30 kills were Katie Wilkins with 32 kills at Pacific in a four-set match in 2003 and Julie Rubenstein with 31 kills in five sets at Oregon State in 2008.
 
As for the record books, Ahrens has racked up quite a few mentions throughout.  So far, she ranks atop the career Pepperdine records with 0.43 aces/set, and 7th with 4.38 points/set.  Her points/set output makes her the first Wave to crack the points/set top-10 records since Julie Rubenstein did so from 2005-08.  Prior to the 2021 season, Ahrens also ranked 2nd in the single-season rally scoring single-season records with 0.44 aces/set, 4th with 4.44 kills/set and 5th with 5.13 points/set.  This season, she has already amassed 48 aces on a 0.56 aces/set ratio and is on track to impacting the single-season record books once again.
 
Also in the single-season rally scoring records, Madison Shields ranked tied-7th in 2020 with 4.22 digs/set last season.  She also tied for 3rd in the single-match records with 34 digs - both in five sets and overall.  In Thursday's four-set win over Saint Mary's, Shields tabbed a season-high 27 digs, putting her well over her 1,000th career dig.  She's the 13th Wave to have accomplished the feat and now has amassed 1,043 digs in her career thus far. 
 
Isabel Zelaya ranks 6th with 10.99 career assists/set and 8th with 2,712 total assists. 
 
WEEKLY HONORS & NATIONAL ACCLAIM — Another historic moment came to pass for the Waves and Rachel Ahrens this week as she became the first-ever Pepperdine women's volleyball player to garner AVCA National weekly honors.  The Waves have earned one other national weekly honor in program history with the NCAA Player of the Week award as Jazmine Orozco accomplished the feat in 2012. 
 
This season, the Waves have also tabbed six West Coast Conference weekly honors.  First, Rachel Ahrens and Meg Brown picked up the offensive and defensive honors respectively, then Madison Shields garnered a pair of defensive nods.  Most recently, Shields tabbed defensive honors for the second-straight week, while Ahrens picked up her second offensive recognition of the season.  Ahrens leads the Waves after having picked up seven weekly accolades throughout her career, while Shields has earned six and Brown two throughout each of their careers as well.
 
SQUAD GOALS — The Waves have gone 18-4 overall this season and 10-3 in the West Coast Conference, which currently puts them at #3 in the standings this week.  Though the squad was ranked a majority of the season, they have been sitting in the receiving votes category the last two weeks.  The Waves are also on a five-match winning streak currently.  As a team, Pepperdine amasses 13.82 kills/set on a .255 clip, while giving up 11.46 kills on a .217 output.  The Waves add 1284 assists, 1.74 aces, 13.09 digs and 1.96 blocks per set on average as well, while opponents post 10.52 assists, 1.18 aces, 11.89 digs and 2.22 blocks per set against on average.
 
Rachel Ahrens and Grace Chillingworth lead the Waves with 4.69 and 3.13 kills/set.  Ahrens adds an impressive 48 aces to average 0.56 aces/set this season for the squad as well.  Rosie Ballo, Meg Brown and Reagan Goeke lead as primary blockers for the Waves, amassing 0.96, 0.91 and 0.59 blocks/set respectively.  Isabel Zelaya serves as the primary playmaker for her squad with 10.99 assists/set.  Madison Shields, Trinity Stanger and Kayla Joyce are big Waves in the back row, averaging 4.09, 1.84 and 1.76 digs/set respectively.  Shields has amassed 348 total digs this season, along with 16 aces and Stanger and Joyce add 18 and 16 aces respectively as well.
 
LAST WEEK — Pepperdine had a banner week last week, defeating Saint Mary's in four sets before dominating Pacific in straight sets. Against SMC, the Waves posted 67 kills on a .379 clip, while giving up 44 kills on a .206.  Rachel Ahrens led with an impressive 30 kills, the third time in program history a Wave has accomplished the feat, and did so on a .411 success rate.  Emma Ammerman and Grace Chillingworth were next up on the attack for Pepperdine with 16 kills on a .481 clip and 10 kills on a .308 hitting percentage respectively.  Madison Shields dominated in the back row with 27 digs as well, while Isabel Zelaya led the squad with 60 assists.  Reagan Goeke had a team-high four blocks and Kayla Joyce posted 12 digs and two aces as well.
 
In the sweep over Pacific, the Waves added 38 kills on a .271 output, while allowing 31 kills on a .109 clip to the opposition.  Pepperdine also led in blocks, aces and digs with 8.0 blocks, four aces and 45 digs, compared to the Tigers 4.0 blocks, two aces and 40 digs.  Ahrens and Ammerman led on the attack with 15 and 10 kills respectively, while Shields added another 18 digs to the stat line.  Zelaya marked 30 assists and Rosie Ballo led with five blocks. 
 
THE COMPETITION — It's a tough week in WCC action for the Waves as Pepperdine hits the road to challenge both #5 BYU and #19 San Diego.  Each of these teams has moved up three spots in the AVCA National Coaches Poll since the last time the Waves faced them at home.  The Cougars lead the conference, while the Toreros sit at the #2 spot having gone undefeated and having lost only one match respectively.
 
BYU leads 30-8 all-time, beginning in 1976 when the Waves won in two.  The Cougars had a 16-match winning streak through the 2019 season which the Waves snapped with a sweep at home last season.  Though Pepperdine won the first match up last year, BYU was able to win the second in five - both were in Firestone.  This season, the Cougars have gone 23-1 overall and 13-0 in the league, losing only to then-ranked #4 Pitt on the road.  Since that loss, the Cougars had not dropped a set in nine matches to go 27-0 in sets played until dropping a set in each match against the Waves and LMU.  Since dropping the set to the Waves on October 16, the Cougars have once again gone on a set-winning streak and have gone 18-0 with six wins including a sweep of #19 San Diego.
 
All-time against San Diego, the Waves lead 43-34 dating back to 1979 when the Waves won 3-0 at home.  After that, Pepperdine went on 20-match winning streak against the Toreros through 1992 including 14 straight-sweeps and only two lost sets throughout.  Last season, Pepperdine and USD each took a four-set win in San Diego.  This season, the Toreros have gone 18-4 overall and 12-1 in the WCC, with losses to then-ranked #1 Texas, #8 BYU, #19 Utah and Long Beach State.  Last week, the team beat both Gonzaga and Portland, in four sets and three sets respectively.