MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team, a squad receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll for the second week, will host the 24th annual Pepperdine Asics Classic this week.  The Waves will face #9 Baylor for the home opener on Thursday night in Firestone Fieldhouse, before hosting UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State on Friday and Saturday respectively.
 
MATCH #4 — Thursday (September 1) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: Pepperdine vs. #9 Baylor at 6 p.m. | Watch: WCC Network
 
MATCH #5 — Friday (September 2) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: Pepperdine vs. UC Santa Barbara at 6 p.m. | Watch: WCC Network
 
MATCH #6 — Saturday (September 3) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: Pepperdine vs. San Diego State 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.
 
WAVECASTS — All Pepperdine matches for the Asics Classic will be streamed live on the WCC Network with links found on www.PepperdineWaves.com.  Veteran play-by-play man El Epstein, a 2015 Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame inductee who is now in his 37th season, will be behind the microphone.  The other three matches not including Pepperdine will be streamed live via Wavecasts on YouTube.
 
FURTHER COVERAGE — Live stats will be provided for all matches with links available on PepperdineWaves.com.
 
UP NEXT — After the weekend in Malibu, the Waves will hit the road again - this time up north to Seattle for the Alaska Airlines Invitational on September 8-9.  Pepperdine will face off against Cal Poly on Thursday before challenging tournament-host #14 Washington and Northwestern on Friday.
 
TICKETS & SPECTATOR GUIDELINES — Tickets to all Pepperdine home women's volleyball matches will be available via e-ticket ONLY.  Pepperdine faculty, staff and students must show Pepperdine ID card for entry — no ticket purchase is required.
 
To purchase e-tickets and read the spectator guidelines, visit: www.PepperdineWaves.com/Tickets. Due to campus construction, nearby parking is limited and guests are advised to arrive early.
 
Each match costs $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (65+) and $5 for children and non-Pepperdine students. 
 
PROMOTIONS — On Thursday, the first 150 students with a valid Pepperdine ID will receive Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwiches from Chick-Fil-A Westlake Village.
 
ASICS CLASSIC — This year marks the 24th season that Pepperdine has hosted the Asics Classic, beginning the tradition with the inaugural tournament in 1997. The Waves went 23-6 that year, starting out with three-straight wins at the Classic against Fresno State (3-2), Tulane (3-1) and Northern Arizona (3-2). In the 22-season span of the tournament, the Waves have tallied a 48-19 record against opponents and have gone undefeated on six separate occasions including most recently in the 2018 season. The tournament went on a brief one-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
 
SQUAD GOALS — Pepperdine opened the 2022 season with two wins against Tulsa and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi last weekend, before falling to top-ranked Nebraska at the Ameritas Players Challenge.  The Waves impressed with 12.70 kills, 12.30 assists, 0.80 aces, 17.10 digs and 3.60 team blocks per set to open the season.  The squad's blocks/set and total blocks rank 5th and 7th nationally after week one as well.
 
Grace Chillingworth, Emily Hellmuth and Meg Brown led the attack front with 2.70 kills/set respectively.  All three had 27 kills in 10 sets, while Brown fired away at a .355 clip.  She and Hellmuth each added 1.20 assists/set and posted team-bests 37.5 and 33.5 points respectively.  Avery Shimaitis and Vanessa Polk also added 2.29 and 1.40 kills/set respectively.
 
Polk was a force at the net, putting in 23 total blocks with five solos to average 2.30 blocks/set for the Waves. On the back line, the Waves put in 17.10 team digs/set as well and featured six players with more than two digs per set on average.  Riley Patterson was solid with 4.00 digs/set and 40 total digs, while Kayleigh Hames and Trinity Stanger added 3.22 and 3.11 digs/set respectively.  Chillingworth, Isabel Zelaya and Rachel Ahrens rounded it out with 2.33 digs/set as well.  Zelaya was the primary playmaker for the Waves with 9.60 assists/set, while adding 0.50 blocks/set as well.
 
THE COMPETITION — #9 Baylor has gone 1-1 overall this season, first falling to #5 Minnesota in four sets before picking up the upset over #3 Wisconsin in five.  The Waves have faced off with the Bears twice before, in 2020, falling in five set battles in both - including the final bout that year in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.   Pepperdine holds a 32-30 lead over UC Santa Barbara all-time, dating back to 1976 when the Waves won in straight sets for the opener.  Each team has had a few streaks throughout, but the Waves have recently gone 8-2 in the last 10 matches against the Gauchos, including a 3-2 win on the road last season.  UCSB has gone 0-3 so far this season, falling to Northern Colorado, North Carolina and Colorado State.  San Diego State has a narrow 21-20 overall record against Pepperdine all-time, dating back to 1976 when the Waves won the first match and then the following five matches.  SDSU had a streak from 1980-1986, but the Waves have won seven-straight most recently since 1995, including a 3-1 win last season at a neutral site.  The Aztecs have gone 2-1 so far this season with a loss to Cal and wins over Army West Point and UC San Diego.
 
FRESH DEBUTS — The newcomers had quite the debut for their first outings in the navy and orange last week, with six seeing action as the Waves went 2-1 at Nebraska.  Riley Patterson, grad transfer from Pacific was clutch on the back line, amassing 4.00 digs/set with 40 digs in 10 sets of action for the squad.  She added 1.20 assists/set and 0.10 aces/set as well. 
 
Freshmen Vanessa Polk, Emily Hellmuth and Avery Shimaitis also came out ready to impress for their collegiate debuts.  Polk now ranks 3rd nationally with 2.30 blocks/set and 23 total blocks including three solo rejections.  She also added 1.40 kills/set and had 28.0 total points in her 10 sets.  Hellmuth averaged 2.70 kills/set with a tied-team high 27 kills over her 10 sets of action.  She added 1.20 blocks/set for 33.5 total points as well.  Shimaitis put down 2.29 kills and 0.57 blocks per set as well.
 
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 5th in career kills with 1,397.  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 5th with 1,666.0 points, 7th with 4.47 points/set and 3.75 kills/set and 3,328 total attempts.  Isabel Zelaya has also been climbing the record books at Pepperdine, ranking 6th with 10.52 assists/set and 8th with 3, 018 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.