MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team, a team receiving votes in the AVCA preseason coaches poll, begins the 2022 campaign by competing in the Ameritas Players Challenge in Lincoln, Neb. this week.  The Waves will face Tulsa and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi before challenging tournament-host Nebraska, a team ranked atop the AVCA poll.
 
MATCH #1 — Friday (August 26) at Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.: Pepperdine vs. Tulsa at 7 a.m. PT | Watch ($): B1G+
 
MATCH #2 — Friday (August 26) at Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.: Pepperdine vs. Tulsa at 2 p.m. PT | Watch ($): B1G+
 
MATCH #3 — Saturday (August 27) at Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.: Pepperdine vs. #1 Nebraska at 5 p.m. PT | Watch ($): B1G+
 
LIVE COVERAGE — All matches will have both live stats and stream available throughout the weekend with links found on www.PepperdineWaves.com.  The matches will be streamed through B1G+ with a subscription required.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA — Follow @WavesVolleyball on Twitter for updates and check out PepperdineWaves.com and Facebook (/WavesVolleyball) for releases and more information.
 
UP NEXT — The Waves will return home next week to host the Pepperdine Asics Classic, welcoming #16 Baylor, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State to Firestone Fieldhouse on September 1-3.

WCC PRESEASON HONORS — Three Waves earned All-WCC preseason honors with Rachel Ahrens, Isabel Zelaya and Meg Brown receiving recognition.  Pepperdine was slated to finish third in the league behind BYU and San Diego and ahead of LMU and Santa Clara.  Pacific, Saint Mary's, Gonzaga, Portland and San Francisco round out the poll.
 
SQUAD GOALS — Pepperdine returns seven players, including five starters.  The Waves lost eight letterwinners and two starters, along with the primary libero from last season. 
 
All-American graduate student Rachel Ahrens returns to don the navy and orange this season, as do seniors Isabel Zelaya, Kayleigh Hames, juniors Emma Ammerman, Meg Brown and sophomores Grace Chillingworth and Trinity Stanger. 
 
There are eight newcomers joining the squad as well, including Pacific graduate transfer Riley Patterson and junior Cameron Baklenko, who was a member of the Pepperdine beach volleyball program the past two years.  Freshmen Maselina Tuufuli, Rosemary Archer, Emily Hellmuth, Kenadie Patterson, Avery Shimaitis and Vanessa Polk have also joined the ranks.
 
MILESTONES & RECORD WATCH — Rachel Ahrens tops the career record books for Pepperdine in aces and aces/set already after four years as a Wave.  She had amassed 153 aces in 370 sets and 0.41 aces/set before this season.  Ahrens also currently ranks 6th in career kills with 1,387.  She is one kill away from moving up one spot.  Nicole Sanderson leads the category with 2,028 kills in 431 sets from 1994-97, while these Waves fill in the following four spots: Julie Evans (84-87) with 1,955 kills in 425 sets, Julie Rubenstein (05-08) with 1,743 kills in 423 sets, Katie Wilkins (00-03) with 1,672 kills in 368 sets and Stacy Rouwenhorst (99-02) with 1,388 kills in 298 sets.
 
Ahrens also ranks 5th with 1,654.0 points, 7th with 4.47 points/set and 3.75 kills/set and 3,295 total attempts.  Isabel Zelaya has also been climbing the record books at Pepperdine, ranking 6th with 10.55 assists/set and 8th with 2,922 total assists.
 
Ahrens also stands out int he single-season rally scoring era record books, topping 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 ranks 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 ranks 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. 
 
 
2021 RECAP — Last season, the Waves went 22-6 (.786) overall and finished tied for 2nd in the league with a 14-4 (.778) record in conference play. The squad collected a 9-3 record at home, 9-2 output on the road and went 4-0 on neutral courts.  The squad earned the program's 25th berth into the NCAA Tournament and it was the third tournament appearance in the last four years for the Waves. 
 
As a team, Pepperdine collected 13.79 kills/set on a .252 clip, while giving up 11.45 kills/set on a .218 output to opponents.  The Waves added 12.71 assists, 1.58 aces, 13.43 digs and 1.91 blocks per set, while allowing opponents 10.55 assists, 1.21 aces, 12.24 digs and 2.22 blocks per set throughout the season. Rachel Ahrens led the squad with 513 kills and 51 aces, while Meg Brown had a team-best .304 hitting percentage and Isabel Zelaya tabbed 1,144 assists.  Waves' alumni Madison Shields and Rosie Ballo led the squad with 457 digs and 95 blocks respectively. 
 
THE COMPETITION — The Waves will face off with Tulsa, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi and top-ranked Nebraska this week.  Pepperdine and the Hurricane have faced once prior to this season - on a neutral court in 2019, falling 3-2 in a tough five-set battle.  Last season, Tulsa went 14-16 overall and 9-11 in American Athletic Conference play.  This will be the first meeting of the Waves and Islanders all-time.  Last season, UTAMCC posted a 19-10 overall record and a 13-1 output in the CCIA.  The Huskers hold a 5-2 overall record against the Waves, dating back to 1976 when the teams first met and Pepperdine won 2-0.  The Waves won again in 1981 2-1, before the Huskers went on a five-match streak from 1984-2005 with two five-set wins, one four-setter and two sweeps.
 
POSITION BREAKDOWNS:
CANNONS — Rachel Ahrens, Emma Ammerman, Grace Chillingworth, Emily Hellmuth, Avery Shimaitis, Maselina Tuufuli
MALIBU ROOFING COMPANY — Meg Brown, Kenadie Patterson, Vanessa Polk
PLAYMAKERS — Rosemary Archer, Isabel Zelaya
CAN YOU DIG IT? — Cameron Baklenko, Kayleigh Hames, Riley Patterson, Trinity Stanger
 
COMPETING WITH PURPOSE — The Pepperdine University Athletics Department is committed to Christian values, to the academic well-being of all our student-athletes and to competing for championships. The Competing with Purpose campaign highlights the commitment to our core values that we dedicate ourselves to daily.
 
SCOTT WONG — Pepperdine alum Scott Wong was named head coach in December 2014, becoming the fifth head coach in program history.  Entering his eighth season at the helm of the Waves, Wong has marked a 125-75 (.622) overall record and winning percentage for Pepperdine.  He helped the program to three NCAA Tournament berths in four years and finished with second-round appearances in 2018 and 2020 and a first-round appearance in 2021.  The 2018 appearance was the Waves' first since 2012.  He hit is 100-win milestone as the Waves downed #21 San Diego on the road in four sets in 2020.  He was also an assistant with the Waves' men's program from 2005-09 (and was part of the 2005 NCAA championship-winning team) before moving back to his home state of Hawaii and serving as associate coach with the Rainbow Wahine's women's squad for five seasons.  He was also Hawaii's sand volleyball head coach.  Wong was a three-time All-American with the Waves between 1998-01.
 
THE SIDELINES — Along with Head Coach Scott Wong, Steve Astor returns for his third season on the sidelines as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in 2022.  Additionally, Pepperdine alumna Blossom Sato returned to Malibu to coach on the sidelines in 2022.  This season, the Waves also added volunteer assistant Cole Murray to the squad.  Astor graduated from Vanguard in 2012.  He brings over 20 years of coaching experience, spanning multiple sports at various levels, including college, high school and club to the program.  He most recently comes after having served as a volunteer assistant at University of Washington.  Sato graduated from Pepperdine in 2019 and had an All-WCC first team nod.  She had a stint as volunteer assistant for the Waves in 2019, while also tabbing two years as an assistant for Portland State.  Murray most recently coached girls club volleyball at Saddleback Volleyball Club from 2020-22 and was a high school coach at Northwood High School in Irvine, Calif. since 2017.  He played collegiately at Irvine Valley College before transferring to Loyola Chicago to finish his collegiate career.
 
INDOOR VOLLEYBALL HISTORY — The Pepperdine women's volleyball program is synonymous with the word excellence, as the Waves are a perennial national power.  The Waves have advanced to postseason play 30 times in 47 seasons, including 16 trips to the NCAA Championships in the last 24 seasons.  Pepperdine's best finishes in recent years came when the team made the regional final of the NCAA Tournament in 2002 and again in 2011.  12 players have earned AVCA or Volleyball Magazine All-American honors a combined 22 times, while six players have been dubbed the WCC Player of the Year nine total times.  Nina Matthies, who stepped down after the 2013 season, was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in December, 2015.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I Championships in five different men's sports — one of just 20 schools to have accomplished this feat — and 10 overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 26 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, four times, most recently this year in 2021-22.  Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful.  Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks No. 49 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.