MALIBU, Calif. — Fresh off clinching the West Coast Conference Championship crown, the Pepperdine women's volleyball team will hit the road to face the final three matches of the regular season, including a pair of league opponents.

MATCH #25 — Thursday (November 16) at Alex G. Spanos Center in Stockton, Calif.: Pepperdine (18-6, 14-0 WCC) at Pacific (17-9, 9-5 WCC) at 6 p.m. PT | ESPN+ ($)

MATCH #26 — Saturday (November 18) at War Memorial at The Sobrato Center in San Francisco, Calif.: Pepperdine (18-6, 14-0 WCC) at San Francisco (10-16, 4-10 WCC) at 1 p.m. PT | ESPN+ ($)

MATCH #27 — Monday (November 20) at Moody Coliseum in Dallas, Texas: Pepperdine (18-6, 14-0 WCC) at SMU (21-6, 15-1 AAC) at 5 p.m. PT | ESPN+ ($)

UP NEXT — The NCAA Selection Show will air live on ESPNU on Sunday, November 26 at 3 p.m. PT.

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

ESPN+ — This week, the matches will stream live on ESPN+.  Throughout the season, all of Pepperdine's home matches will be available on ESPN+.  The West Coast Conference and ESPN have expanded their longstanding media rights relationship. In addition to showcasing more than 25 games on ESPN's linear networks, ESPN+ will serve as the new, exclusive digital home for more than 900 conference events each year. 

 ADDITIONAL COVERAGE — Live stats for all matches will be available with links found on PepperdineWaves.com. 

WCC CHAMPIONS & NCAA BERTH — The Waves clinched the West Coast Conference Championship on Saturday, November 11 with a sweep over 2022 NCAA Final Four competitor San Diego.  With the WCC title, the Waves became the first team in the nation to earn a berth into the NCAA Tournament, having captured the WCC's automatic qualifier bid.  It will be the program's 27th appearance in an NCAA Tournament overall.  It's Pepperdine's fourth-consecutive tournament appearance and its fifth in the last six years.

Pepperdine has remained undefeated in league action so far at 14-0 to have achieved the feat.  It's the 12th time in program history and first time since 2011 that Pepperdine has been crowned the league's champion.

Pepperdine won the league's first-ever conference title in 1985 season after going an undefeated 12-0 under the helm of the Waves' legendary head coach Nina Matthies.  After taking second the following year, the Waves once again went undefeated at 14-0 in 1987 to win the crown once again.  Including that year, Pepperdine won five-consecutive league titles through 1991, with four of those five seasons featuring untarnished 14-0 records.  The Waves cooled off shortly after, but won the title again in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003 - all with undefeated 14-0 records and finishing in the top-10 nationally with sixth place finishes in the final two years during that period.  Most recently, Pepperdine was the best in the WCC in 2011 after going 15-1 and finishing sixth in the final national rankings.

THE STREAK — After a 1-6 start to the 2023 campaign, the Waves have rallied tough, winning the team's last 17-consecutive matches including 14 in straight sets.  The 17 wins in a row ties the program's second-best streak in program history, which had last been achieved in 2002 and 2003.  It's the eighth time in program history that Pepperdine has won 13-or-more games consecutively as well.

The current streak is the longest since the Waves won 13-straight in 2011 to open WCC play off.  In addition to that year, Pepperdine also had 13-match winning streaks in 2008, 2001 and 1997.  The team won 15-straight matches in 1991, 17-straight in 2002 and a program-best 25-consecutive matches in 2003.

The Waves have only dropped three sets against conference opponents so far this season, having tabbed a 42-3 record by sets so far.  The team has not lost a set in the last 20 sets - since October 19 - and the last time the team dropped a match against any opponent was on September 8.

WEEKLY HONORS — For the second-straight week and fourth time in the last five weeks, junior Grace Chillingworth has garnered the West Coast Conference's Offensive Player of the Week accolade.  She has earned six honors of its kind throughout her career thus far, including back-to-back occasions this season on October 16 and 23 and on November 6 and 13.

Last week, the pin was nearly unstoppable yet again, helping the Waves to the WCC Championship after sweeping Santa Clara and San Diego for the second time this season. She blasted 5.33 kills/set on a .319 hitting percentage, while tagging 0.83 aces and 3.00 digs for 6.2 points per set throughout the week. She totaled 32 kills, 18 digs and five aces for 37.0 points for Pepperdine.

In the week's opener at Santa Clara, she marked an impressive 16 kills on a career-high .577 hitting percentage, while adding a tied career-best five aces. She totaled 21.0 points throughout after marking nine digs and had 24 reception attempts with only two errors. The pin averaged 7.00 points per set with 5.33 kills, 1.67 aces and 3.00 digs per set. Then in the sweep over San Diego that clinched the regular season title for the Waves, Chillingworth posted another 16 kills, while adding nine digs and 25 receptions with only one error for 16 points. She averaged 5.33 kills and 3.00 digs per set to finish with 5.3 points per set.

SQUAD GOALS — Pepperdine has gone 18-6 overall this season and remains perfect against West Coast Conference opponents with a 14-0 record.  The Waves have won the last 17-straight matches, which ties the second-longest winning streak in program history.  As a team, Pepperdine averages 13.45 kills/set on a .272 clip, while adding 12.48 assists, 1.55 aces, 14.31 digs and 2.10 blocks per set.  On average, the Waves allow 12.11 kills/set on a .191 output, along with 11.25 assists, 1.15 aces, 13.48 digs and 1.91 blocks per set. 

Grace Chillingworth, Birdie Hendrickson, Meg Brown and Emily Hellmuth lead the attack efforts for Pepperdine, having amassed 3.94, 2.91, 2.35 and 2.01 kills/set respectively.  Chillingworth, Riley Patterson, Hendrickson and Brown lead the squad at the service line, having marked 27, 23, 21 and 19 aces apiece to average 0.34, 0.29, 0.27 and 0.28 aces/set respectively.  Patterson also leads the effort on the back line, having amassed 3.68 digs/set this season after leading the team with 294 total digs.  Hendrickson, Chillingworth and Isabel Zelaya also produce 2.48, 2.33 and 2.00 digs/set respectively as well.  Zelaya is the primary playmaker for the squad with 816 total assists and 10.33 assists/set.  Lastly at the net, Brown and Vanessa Polk lead the efforts with 0.91 blocks/set respectively.  Polk leads the team with 69 total blocks, including 11 solo rejections, while Brown has posted 63 total blocks with eight solos.

LAST WEEK — The Waves downed Santa Clara and San Diego last week, sweeping both teams for the second time this season.  Against the Broncos on the road, Pepperdine picked up 25-20, 25-23 and 25-14 set scores, having amassed 45 kills on an impressive .425 success rate.  The team added 37 digs, seven aces and 5.0 blocks, while giving up 37 kills on a .224 clip with three aces, 30 digs and 3.0 team blocks.  Grace Chillingworth led the team with a solid 16 kills on a .577 clip, adding five aces and nine digs.  Birdie Hendrickson also hit for double-figures with 10 kills and led the team with three blocks.  Isabel Zelaya dished out 33 assists as well and six Waves tabbed three kills or more throughout the match.

Then against the Toreros at home, the Waves won 25-19, 25-22, 25-17.  Pepperdine posted 47 kills on a .226 output, with four aces, 52 digs and 5.5 blocks.  The opposition was good for 26 kills on a .086 clip, with three aces, 39 digs and 10.5 blocks.  Chillingworth and Hendrickson led the pack once again with 16 and 11 kills respectively.  Zelaya was good for 31 assists and tied the team-high with three blocks alongside Meg Brown.  Riley Patterson produced eight digs to lead the squad and Laine Briggs put up a pair of aces.

THE COMPETITION — Pacific has gone 17-9 overall and 9-5 in the league this season so far, including a pair of wins over Portland and Gonzaga last week.  Earlier this season, the Waves beat the Tigers at home in straight sets. The Waves lead all-time against the Tigers with a 25-16 record dating back to 1977 when Pepperdine won 2-0.  Pacific had a 10-match winning streak from 1979 to 1994, but in recent years the Waves have gone 18-5 against the Tigers since 2003.  In the last two seasons, Pepperdine has gone 4-1 against UOP, losing on the road in a five-setter in 2021 before winning the following four matches in straight sets.

San Francisco has posted a 10-16 overall record and a 4-10 output against WCC opponents.  The Dons dropped a pair of straight-set matchups against San Diego and LMU last week and dropped via sweep to the Waves at home earlier this season as well.  Pepperdine holds a staggering 69-8 record against San Francisco, dating back to 1985 when the teams first met and the Waves won 3-1 at home.  The team won 16-straight after that through 1992, though the longest winning streak was 29-consecutive matches from 1993-2007.  Pepperdine was on a 16-match winning streak from 2014-22, though USF took the final matchup of the season last year with a five-set win over the Waves in Malibu to break it. 

SMU has gone 21-6 overall and a near-perfect 15-1 in the American Athletic Conference so far this season, including a pair of sweeps at Tulane last week.  The Waves and Mustangs have faced once before in history, with the Waves winning on a neutral court in four sets in 2016.

4,000 ASSIST CLUB — Graduate student setter Isabel Zelaya entered the exclusive 4,000 assist club during the first week of the season.  She entered the 2023 campaign with 3,995 assists and after the 22 matches now sits at 4,810 assists.  That mark puts her second in the Pepperdine women's volleyball record books, the fifth Wave all-time to have surpassed the 4,000-assist mark and the first since 2009.  Becci Roehl (1994-97) leads the category with 5,020 assists all-time.  This season, Zelaya has passed Kiah Fiers (2006-09) with 4,410 assists and Melissa Mehlhorn (2002-05) with 4,387 career assists.