LINCOLN, Neb. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team, a squad that received votes in the AVCA coaches preseason poll, opened the 2022 season with a pair of wins at the Ameritas Players Challenge on Friday. The Waves took down Tulsa in four sets before sweeping past Texas A&M – Corpus Christi in three to open the tournament hosted by top-ranked Nebraska in Lincoln.
On Saturday, Pepperdine (2-0) will close out the tournament against the #1 Huskers (1-0) at 5 p.m. PT. The match will stream live on the Big Ten Network for those with the subscription.
The freshmen attack force accounted for nearly half of all Waves' kill throughout the two matches. Multiple Waves had solid performances throughout, but several newcomers came out to impress early in their Pepperdine careers.
In the first match,
Vanessa Polk was unstoppable defending the net, posting 10 blocks in her collegiate debut including three solo rejections. Freshman
Emily Hellmuth also had quite an impressive attacking presence with 15 kills and five blocks in her career-opener. Grad transfer
Riley Patterson added to the prowess with a solid 21 digs in her first match in the navy and orange.
That wasn't it, however, as junior
Meg Brown led with 17 kills and added five blocks and sophomore
Grace Chillingworth put in 15 kills and 13 digs with two aces during her first career double-double.
Isabel Zelaya also picked up her 18
th career double-double with 46 assists and 14 digs.
The second match saw freshmen posting 21 of the 36 kills tabbed by Pepperdine, including a team-high nine from
Avery Shimaitis. Polk added another five blocks and seven digs as well, while Brown put in eight kills on a .500 clip with four blocks.
MATCH ONE
BIG WAVES
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 46 assists, 14 digs, 2 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 17 kills, .389 hitting %, 5 blocks, 4 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 15 kills, 13 digs, 3 blocks, 2 aces
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 15 kills, 5 blocks
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 10 blocks (3 solos), 5 kills
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 21 digs, 6 assists, 1 ace, 30 serve receptions (1 error)
Trinity Stanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint HS): 13 digs, 3 assists
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 12 digs, 2 assists
WAVES VS. HURRICANE
Pepperdine had two players with double-doubles, three with double-figure kills an five with double-figure digs in an all-around effort. The Waves posted 63 kills on a .211 clip, while giving up 52 kills on a .181 output to the opposition. The squad also marked 15.0 blocks, 83 digs and four aces, while allowing 10.0 blocks, 78 digs and two aces to Tulsa.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 15 8 44 .159
2 14 5 36 .250
3 20 8 58 .207
4 14 4 42 .238
TTL 63 25 180 .211
TULSA ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 13 2 43 .256
2 15 8 39 .179
3 15 5 48 .208
4 9 7 36 .056
TTL 52 22 166 .181
MATCH TWO
BIG WAVES
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 27 assists, 4 digs, 2 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 8 kills, .500 hitting %, 4 blocks (1 solo), 2 aces
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 7 kills, .429 hitting %, 5 blocks
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 5 kills, 2 blocks
Kayleigh Hames (Maryville, Tenn./Webb School of Knoxville): 10 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 4 kills, 6 digs
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 8 digs, 2 assists
Trinity Stanger (Los Angeles, Calif./Viewpoint HS): 5 digs
WAVES VS. ISLANDERS
Another well-rounded effort helped the cause in the second match of the day. Each side of the net put in 36 kills, but the Waves posted a .214 clip, compared to the opposition's .140 to win the day. Pepperdine also added 9.0 blocks, 46 digs and two aces, as opposed to the Islanders' 8.5 blocks, 45 digs and no aces.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 11 5 37 .162
2 11 4 34 .206
3 14 5 32 .281
TTL 36 14 103 .214
TEXAS A&M CC ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 15 7 38 .211
2 9 10 43 -.023
3 12 4 26 .308
TTL 36 21 107 .140
PLAY-BY-PLAY
After a see-saw battle to open the first set, the Waves pulled ahead with a strong block effort from
Vanessa Polk and
Emily Hellmuth.
Rachel Ahrens' first ace of the season, along with smashes from
Meg Brown and
Grace Chillingworth helped the cause – and the Waves to a 17-13 lead. The opposition would tie the score at 18's, however, and use the momentum to pull ahead towards a 25-22 win.
The second set told a different story throughout, with each side going virtually point-for-point yet again. Pepperdine had the slight edge throughout and kills from Brown, Hellmuth and Chillingworth eventually put the Waves ahead 16-12. Tulsa was able to go on a 4-0 run to tie the score, but the Waves continued to pound down on the opposition, building a three-point lead late in the set, 23-20, on a block collaboration from Polk and Hellmuth. Hellmuth then put the Waves in a position to close the set with a smash and the Waves capitalized on an attack error from across the net to tie the overall on a 25-21 second set victory.
Though the Waves had an early lead in the third set, the Hurricane always stayed close behind, tying it up a few times throughout. Towards the end of the set, Tulsa led 17-13, but Pepperdine fought back with a 4-0 run to tie. After going point-for-point past 20-20, 23-23 and 26-26 tied scores, a kill from Polk and a block collaboration from Polk and
Isabel Zelaya finished off the 28-26 set in the Waves favor.
Heading into the fourth set with the lead, the Waves had a solid momentum to start, pulling ahead 6-2 with blocks from Brown and
Avery Shimaitis. Kills from Hellmuth and another block from Hellmuth and Polk put the Waves ahead by eight, 12-4, and it was a lead the squad would ride out to the end. The Hurricane made a late comeback attempt, but Pepperdine finished the match with kills from Chillingworth and Brown en route to a 25-16 final set score.
In the second match, each side of the net came out swinging towards 6-6 and 12-12 tied scores. A kill and a pair of aces from Brown started pushing the Waves ahead towards the second half of the set and another block from Hellmuth and Polk made it a 22-18 advantage for the team. Brown denied the Islanders with a solo block at the end of the set and a pair of errors from across the net closed out the first with a 25-20 Waves' win.
The second set was similar in the beginning, but kills from Shimaitis and Polk started propelling Pepperdine towards the lead in the middle of the set once again. A Polk,
Emma Ammerman block collaboration continued the Waves momentum, along with a strong service output from
Kayleigh Hames. Ammerman had six service opportunities to close out the final points of the set, featuring kills from Hellmuth and a big block from Brown and Zelaya for a 25-13 win.
The momentum was clearly in Pepperdine's court to open the third set as the Waves quickly went up 9-4 with kills from Brown. The opposition started to close the gap towards the end of the match, coming within on-point at 23-22, but the Waves were able to hold on with a pair of back-to-back kills from Shimaitis and Polk for the 25-22 set win and 3-0 straight-set sweep.
FOLLOW
Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @WavesVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @peppvolley. Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on
www.PepperdineWaves.com.
