Women's Volleyball Opens NCAA Tournament Wednesday Against UMBC

MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team begins the postseason push on Wednesday with an NCAA Championships first round match against UMBC. It is the 24th time the Waves have earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament in program history.

MATCH #20 — Wednesday (April 14) at CHI Health Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena in Omaha, Neb.: #20 Pepperdine vs. UMBC at 9 a.m. PT/11 a.m. CT. | NCAA Championships first round.

MATCH #21 (if Pepperdine wins first round) — Thursday (April 15) at CHI Health Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena in Omaha, Neb.: #20 Pepperdine vs. #11 (#12 seed) Baylor at 9 a.m. PT/11 a.m. CT. | NCAA Championships second round.

ESPN3 & LIVE COVERAGE — Live coverage will be available for all matches, with the first rounds airing on ESPN3. Live stats will also be available courtesy the NCAA. Links can be found on PepperdineWaves.com.

THE TOURNEY — The 48 teams participating in the championship will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, where all rounds of the tournament will be played April 14-24 at the CHI Health Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena, hosted by the University of Nebraska and MECA. First- and second-round matches will be played April 14 and 15, and regional semifinals will be played April 18, at the convention center. Regional finals will take place on April 19 at the arena.

The regional winners will advance to the national semifinals and championship final hosted on April 22 and 24 at the CHI Health Center Omaha arena. The national semifinal matches and championship match will broadcast on ESPN2. All matches will be streamed on various ESPN networks.

SOCIAL MEDIA — Follow @WavesVolleyball on Twitter for updates and check out PepperdineWaves.com and Facebook (/WavesVolleyball) for releases and more information.

WAVES IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT — The last season the Waves made the tournament was 2018. In that season, Pepperdine went 22-9 overall and made it to the second round of the tournament after a 3-2 first round win over Northern Iowa. In the second round against #6 Wisconsin, the Waves took a set off, but eventually lost 3-1 to bow out of the tournament.

Prior to that, Pepperdine made the tournament in 2012, when the Waves went 20-12 overall. In 2011, Pepperdine made an NCAA Elite 8 appearance, finishing 6th nationally overall in the final rankings and sporting a 25-7 overall record.

This is the 24th appearance for the Waves' all-time with the first-ever appearance occurring in the 1984 campaign. Pepperdine has earned an appearance in 15 NCAA tournaments in the past 23-years.

WCC POSTSEASON HONORS — Five Waves garnered All-West Coast Conference postseason accolades this season. Highlighting the honors, junior Madison Shields tabbed WCC Libero of the Year acclaim, while Meg Brown received Freshman of the Year status.

Shields is the sixth Pepperdine player all-time to earn the conference's top defensive honor, previously named WCC Defensive Player of the Year, and the first to do so since Stevi Robinson did so in the 2010 campaign. She has tabbed a career-high 315 digs with 4.32 digs/set so far this season, while anchoring the back row with 532 total serve receptions and only 18 errors for a .956 reception percentage.

Brown is the 13th Wave to capture the top honor of its kind and the first since Tarah Wylie achieved the feat in the 2015 season. She also earned a spot on the All-WCC first team and WCC All-Freshman Team this season. Brown has posted 2.40 kills/set on a .324 success rate, while adding 0.86 blocks/set this season for the Waves, marking 175 total smashes and 63 total digs with nine solo rejections.

In addition to the major awards, five garnered All-WCC recognition with four first team nods including Brown, senior Shannon Scully, junior Rachel Ahrens and sophomore Isabel Zelaya and one second team nod to Shields. Brown was also named to the All-Freshman Team.

WEEKLY ACCOLADES APLENTY — In 10 weeks of the league's weekly honors this season, the Waves earned 10 of the 20 possible honors. Rachel Ahrens had earned five Offensive Player of the Week nods this season so far. Shannon Scully had also garnered an offensive weekly nod, while Madison Shields and Meg Brown had tabbed three and one defensive honors respectively.

A WEST COAST FINISH — Pepperdine finished 2nd in the West Coast Conference this season, directly behind #16 tournament seed BYU. The Waves went 16-2 in the league, falling only to the two other teams who also earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament - BYU and San Diego. The Waves also defeated both of those teams, including a 3-0 sweep over BYU, handing the Cougars the team's only loss of the season to any opponent. In the last three seasons, the Waves have finished in the top-three of the league, including 2nd place finishes in each the 2020-21 season and the 2018 campaign.

MILESTONE & RECORD WATCH — Senior Shannon Scully is approaching two career milestones. She currently has 969 total career kills and 907 total career digs. Junior Rachel Ahrens is also close to a pair of career milestones with 840 total career kills and 98 total career aces so far.

As for the record books, Ahrens has racked up quite a few mentions throughout. In her career so far, she ranks atop the career Pepperdine records with 0.38 aces/set and 10th with 3.98 points/set. Her points/set output makes her the first Wave to crack the points/set top-10 records since Katie Wilkins did so from 2000-03. Ahrens also ranks 2nd in the rally scoring single-season records with 0.44 aces/set, 4th with 4.44 kills/set and 5th with 5.13 points/set.

In other career records, Alli O'Harra ties for 5th all-time with 328 block assists, which ties USA Olympian Kim Hill's record in that category. She also ranks 10th with 361 total blocks thus far. Isabel Zelaya ranks 7th with 10.28 assists/set and Scully ranks 9th with 3.05 digs/set so far in her career. To cap off the single-season rally scoring records, Madison Shields currently ranks 6th with 4.32 digs/set this season so far.

LAST MATCHES — To close out the regular season, the Waves downed Santa Clara on the road with 3-0 and 3-1 results. In the first match, Pepperdine won with 25-21, 26-24 and 25-20 final set scores. The Waves posted 40 kills with a .262 clip, while adding five aces, 35 digs and 8.0 blocks. The Broncos were good for 38 kills on a .250 hitting percentage with eight aces, 39 digs and 7.0 team blocks. Rachel Ahrens led the Waves in the match with 19 kills on a .293 success rate, while tying the team-high block output with three blocks alongside Kayleigh Hames, Meg Brown and Rosie Ballo. Madison Shields and Shannon Scully led with 13 and 12 digs respectively, while Isabel Zelaya was the primary playmaker with 31 assists.

In the second match, Pepperdine posted 25-18, 25-14, 18-25 and 25-19 set scores for the win. The Waves marked 49 kills on a .206 output with nine aces, 61 digs and 8.0 blocks, while the opposition posted 43 kills with a .159 clip, alongside four aces, 48 digs and 10.5 blocks. Ahrens led the squad with 19 kills and four aces, while Scully posted 12 kills, 16 digs, four blocks and three aces in a well-rounded effort. Shields and Kayleigh Hames posted 15 and 13 digs respectively, while Zelaya led with 34 assists throughout the match.

SQUAD GOALS — Pepperdine has gone 16-3 overall this season and 16-2 in the West Coast Conference. The Waves have averaged 13.68 kills, 12.90 assists, 1.30 aces, 15.40 digs and 2.06 blocks per set, while allowing the opposition 11.79 kills, 11.25 assists, 1.10 aces, 14.15 digs and 1.80 blocks per set in matches. Pepperdine has amassed 999 total kills on a .254 collective success rate, with 95 aces, 1,124 digs and 249 blocks this season.

Rachel Ahrens leads the squad with 4.44 kills/set and 0.44 aces/set, having posted 324 kills and 32 aces so far. Shannon Scully is an all-around player for the Waves, with 3.25 kills, 0.32 aces, 3.19 digs and 0.38 blocks per set on average for the Waves. Meg Brown and Alli O'Harra hold down the net for Pepperdine, posting 0.86 and 0.89 blocks/set respectively. Brown leads the Waves with 63 blocks including nine solo rejections this season, while O'Harra has marked 62 blocks with five solo jobs. Isabel Zelaya is the primary playmaker for the Waves and averages 11.00 assists and 2.29 digs/set this season after posting 803 assists. Madison Shields and Kayla Joyce are unstoppable in the back row for the squad, with 4.32 and 1.74 digs/set respectively. Shields has put in 315 total digs this season.

THE COMPETITION — This is the first time the Waves and Retrievers will face all-time. This season, UMBC has gone 11-3 overall and 9-3 in the America East Conference. The only three losses the Retrievers faced this season were UAlbany twice and New Hampshire once.

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