MALIBU, Calif. — The #20 Pepperdine women's volleyball team returns to Firestone Fieldhouse this week to host Pacific and Saint Mary's in the next installment of West Coast Conference action.

MATCH #17 — Thursday (October 6) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: #20 Pepperdine vs. Pacific at 7 p.m.  | Watch: WCC Network

MATCH #18 — Saturday (October 8) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: #20 Pepperdine vs. Saint Mary's at 12 p.m. | Watch: WCC Network

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

COVERAGE — The matches this weekend will have live stats and streams available with links to be found on PepperdineWaves.com. All matches will air on the WCC Network.

UP NEXT — Next week, the Waves will make the short trip to LMU on Friday, October 14 for the lone match of the week.  The week following, Pepperdine will remain on the road, trekking up North to challenge Portland and Gonzaga on October 20 and 22.

WEEKLY NODS — Four weeks this season, the Waves have tabbed a West Coast Conference player of the week nod.  Riley Patterson has received the defensive honor and Grace Chillingworth has garnered the offensive recognition twice, while the Waves swept the accolades on week two this season.

This week, Chillingworth tabbed her second accolade after helping lead the Waves to three wins against WCC opponents last week, routing Gonzaga and San Francisco and defeating Santa Clara in four.  She averaged 3.00 kills and digs per set, while producing 0.40 blocks and assists and 0.30 aces per set for her squad.  Overall, she marked 30 kills and digs, three aces and four blocks and assists, finishing with 35.0 points (3.5 points/set) after 10 sets of action.  The sophomore highlighted the week with a fifth career double-double, tabbing 14 kills and 11 digs on a .407 success rate against the Broncos.

2022 weekly honors: Grace Chillingworth, offensive (9/5); Riley Patterson, defensive (9/5); Meg Brown, offensive (9/12); Riley Patterson (9/20); Grace Chillingworth, offensive (10/3).

MORE THAN AN ATHLETE — The Waves have made it a principal standard this season to make mental health a priority among the team.  The white jerseys this year sport a green ribbon which denotes support of mental health awareness.  Throughout a majority of the games as well, many players will wear green hair ties and bracelets, and even paint their nails, all in support of the mental health awareness initiative and erasing the stigma.  The team also has two shirts that sport the phrases 'More Than an Athlete' and 'Be Kind to Your Mind.' 

A focus for the team is to live an honest and healthy lifestyle with each other.  To practice, the team will have at least one weekly meeting and check-in with the team and coaches where the floor is open.  From those check-ins, the team knows who needs to be lifted up throughout the week, who needs to be checked in on and the reasons as to why.  Pepperdine women's volleyball is continuing to attempt to erase the stigma surrounding mental health in athletes.

HEAVY HITTERS, ALL OF 'EM — In five of the first six matches of the season, the Waves had a different kill leader, showing a strong offensive offering for the season. The story has stayed the same throughout the rest of the season as well.  Throughout the 16 matches Pepperdine has played, Rachel Ahrens, Grace Chillingworth and Meg Brown have each led the Waves' attack effort, or tied the match attack high, on five separate occasions.  Emily Hellmuth has led or tied four times and Avery Shimaitis has led or tied in two matches.

SQUAD GOALS — Pepperdine has gone 12-4 overall this season, opening West Coast Conference with a 3-2 output.  As a team, the Waves produce 13.32 kills/set on a .223 success rate, while also adding 12.55 assists, 1.23 aces, 14.60 digs and 2.50 blocks per set.  The squad allows opponents 12.62 kills/set on a .191 clip, along with 11.83 assists, 1.18 aces, 14.12 digs and 2.16 blocks per set.

Four players average more than 2.5 kills/set each match: Emily Hellmuth (2.76), Meg Brown (2.75), Rachel Ahrens (2.74) and Grace Chillingworth (2.68).  Brown leads the team with 165 total kills on an impressive .345 hitting percentage.  She also adds 0.30 aces and 0.92 blocks per set.  Chillingworth leads the team with 21 total aces, marking 0.35 aces/set, while adding 2.28 digs and 0.62 blocks per set.  Vanessa Polk has a team-best 1.31 blocks/set after leading the team with 72 total blocks including 13 solo rejections. 

Isabel Zelaya serves as the primary playmaker with 10.20 assists/set and 600 total assists this season.  She adds 2.03 digs/set as well. Riley Patterson holds down the back row with 4.18 digs/set after having marked 251 digs so far this season.  Kayleigh Hames and Trinity Stanger also help the cause with 2.27 and 2.03 digs/set.

WINNING WAVES LAST WEEK — Last week, the Waves won three WCC matches, first sweeping past Gonzaga at home and San Francisco on the road before defeating Santa Clara in four up North as well.  In the home bout against the Zags, the Waves led with 43 kills on a .247, while giving up only 26 kills on a .122 clip to the opposition.  Meg Brown and Rachel Ahrens led the attack efforts with 12 kills on a .421 and 10 kills on a .389 respectively, while Riley Patterson marked 16 digs to lead the squad.

In the sweep at USF, Pepperdine led with 47 kills on a .277 output, while giving up 36 kills on a .143 clip to the Dons.  Brown added another 10 kills in the match on a .500 clip, while Grace Chillingworth tabbed her fifth career double-double with 10 kills and a team-best 13 digs. 

In the final four-set match against the Broncos, the Waves produced 52 kills on a .258 clip, while giving up 45 kills on a .171 success rate to SCU.  The squad also led impressively seven aces to none and 9.0 blocks to 6.0 throughout the match.  Chillingworth garnered her sixth career double-double with 14 kills and 11 digs, Ahrens had a team-high four aces and Patterson led with 16 digs.

THE COMPETITION — This season, the Tigers have gone 10-6 overall and 2-2 in the league, having swept past Saint Mary's and lost to both Santa Clara and Portland last week.  All-time, the Waves lead 22-16 against Pacific, dating back to 1977 when Pepperdine took home a 2-0 win on a neutral court.  In recent years, Pepperdine has gone 5-1 against Pacific since 2019.

SMC has gone 6-6 overall and 3-1 in the league this season.  Last week, the Gaels were swept by Pacific and swept San Francisco to split the week.  All-time, the Waves lead SMC 54-16, dating back to the first Waves' win - a sweep on the road in 1987.  From 1987-2003, Pepperdine went 33-1 against Saint Mary's.  The longest Gaels' streak was five matches from 2008-10.   Pepperdine is currently on a five-match winning streak since 2019, with three of those wins being in straight sets.

MILESTONES & RECORD WATCH — Rachel Ahrens tops the career record books for Pepperdine in aces and aces/set already after four complete years as a Wave.  She has amassed 163 aces in 423 sets and 0.39 aces/set throughout her career.  Ahrens also currently ranks 5th in career kills with 1,532.  Nicole Sanderson leads the category with 2,028 kills in 431 sets from 1994-97, while these Waves fill in the following three spots: Julie Evans (84-87) with 1,955 kills in 425 sets, Julie Rubenstein (05-08) with 1,743 kills in 423 sets and Katie Wilkins (00-03) with 1,672 kills in 368 sets.

Ahrens also ranks 4th with 3,739 total attempts, 5th with 1,828.0 points and 7th with 4.32 points/set and 3.62 kills/set.  Isabel Zelaya has been climbing the record books at Pepperdine as well, ranking 6th with 10.49 assists/set and 7th with 3,524 total assists.

Ahrens also stands out in the single-season rally scoring era record books, having topped the service aces category with 51 aces in 105 sets in 2021 and 49 aces in 113 sets in 2019.  She ranks 2nd, 3rd and 4th with 0.49, 0.44 and 0.43 aces in 2021, 2020 and 2019 respectively.  She ranked 3rd with 513 kills and 4.89 kills/set in 2021 and 5th with 4.42 kills/set in 2020.  She also ranked 3rd with 591.0 points in 2021, 2nd with 5.63 points/set in 2021 and 6th with 5.13 points/set in 2020.  Zelaya ranked 10th with 11.19 assist/set and 1,144 total assists as well.

Ahrens is also the only Wave to have cracked 30 kills since 2008 last season, collecting 30 kills against Saint Mary's which ranks 3rd in the single-match kills/set records.  The Waves have only accomplished that feat three times throughout the program's history as well.