MALIBU, Calif. — The #23 Pepperdine women's volleyball team opens West Coast Conference action up this week against San Francisco and Santa Clara, traveling up north to take on the opposition on the road.
 
MATCH #10 — Thursday (September 23) at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center in San Francisco, Calif.: #23 Pepperdine at San Francisco at 7 p.m. PT. | Watch: WCC Network.
 
MATCH #11 — Saturday (September 25) at Leavey Center in Santa Clara, Calif.: #23 Pepperdine at Santa Clara at 1 p.m. PT. | Watch: WCC Network.
 
LIVE COVERAGE — Live stats will be available for the match and 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 — Rachel Ahrens marked a tied career-high 27 kills in the Waves match against #9 Washington this season and in doing so, she surpassed the 1,000 career-kill mark.  She became the 21st Wave to have accomplished the feat and now with 1,040 kills, she ranks tied for 17th in the Pepperdine women's volleyball career record books.  She also has put in 130 career aces during her time with the Waves which ranks 4th in the Pepperdine records.
 
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 4.21 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.  Ahrens also ranks 1st after tabbing 49 total aces in 2019, 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. 
 
Isabel Zelaya ranks 6th with 10.53 career assists/set.  To cap off the single-season rally scoring records, Madison Shields ranks tied-7th with 4.22 digs/set last season.  She also ties for 3rd in the single-match records with 34 digs - both in five sets and overall.
 
SQUAD GOALS — The Waves have gone 8-1 overall this season, including perfect 2-0 and 4-0 records on road or neutral courts respectively.  As a team, Pepperdine has marked 13.72 kills/set on a .257 clip, with 12.56 assists, 1.81 aces, 12.61 digs and 2.19 blocks per set.  On average, the squad gives up 11.72 kills/set on a .234 success rate, along with 10.58 assists, 1.19 aces, 11.92 digs and 2.10 blocks per set to opponents.
 
Rachel Ahrens leads the squad with 4.61 kills and 0.78 aces per set this season, after marking 166 kills, 28 aces and 205.5 points.  Grace Chillingworth and Meg Brown are next on the attack for the Waves with 3.06 and 2.56 kills/set respectively.  Brown also adds 0.94 blocks/set to her kill tally, posting 34 total blocks including two solo rejections and leads the team with a .328 hitting percentage thus far.  Rosie Ballo leads the Waves at the net with 1.09 blocks/set after having marked 36 blocks including three solo jobs.  She also has put in 1.39 kills/set.  Isabel Zelaya leads the Waves attack, dishing out 11.17 assists/set with 402 total assists.  She adds 1.56 digs, 0.61 blocks and 0.39 kills per set as well.  The Waves back row is as strong as ever with Madison Shields leading the pack with 3.67 digs/set.  She is joined by Trinity Stanger and Kayla Joyce with 2.06 and 1.83 digs/set respectively.
 
LAST WEEK — The Waves had one match on the docket last week and the squad made quick work of the competition, defeating VCU at home in three sets.  Pepperdine marked 52 kills on a .258 clip, while allowing the opposition only 25 kills on a .080 output.  Each side put up three aces and though the opposition led 8.0-7.0 in blocks, the Waves amassed 56 digs to 46 digs.  Rachel Ahrens led the floor with 17 kills, while Grace Chillingworth added 14 kills.  Meg Brown, Rosie Ballo and Emma Ammerman each led with three blocks, while Brown added eight kills and two aces.  Ammerman also put up eight kills and Ballo put in four.  Isabel Zelaya led the Waves with 44 assists and Madison Shields amassed 18 digs to help the cause as well.
 
THE COMPETITION — Pepperdine will face San Francisco and Santa Clara to open WCC action this week on the road.  The Dons have gone 0-8 this season, falling most recently to UC San Diego and San Jose State last week.  All-time, the Waves hold a 65-7 record against the Dons, dating back to 1985 when the Waves won 3-1.  Last season, Pepperdine won both matches against USF.  Santa Clara has gone 4-6 overall this season, recently defeating Oregon State and falling to Boise State - both with 3-0 results.  All-time, Pepperdine has amassed a 46-33 record against Santa Clara, dating back to 1982 when the Waves defeated the Broncos 2-0.  Last season, Pepperdine defeated SCU twice as well.