MALIBU, Calif. — After winning the West Coast Conference Championship crown this season and receiving the league's automatic qualifier bid, the Pepperdine women's volleyball team earned its 27^th berth to the NCAA Tournament.  Today, the bracket was announced on ESPN and the Waves will head to Pullman, Washington for the first and second rounds.
 
To open the tournament, Pepperdine will take on Dayton, a team that earned the #5 seed in this part of the bracket on December 1 at 4 p.m. PT.  #4-seeded Washington State is hosting the rounds at Bohler Gym and they will face Grand Canyon in the first round.  The other side of the bracket includes #1-seeded Pitt, #8-seeded USC, UMBC and Coppin State.
 
Regional semifinals will take place December 7 and 9 at non-predetermined campus sites.  The rest of the tournament will take place at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. on December 14-17.
 
For all championship site match times and more information about the championship, go to ncaa.com. 
 
WAVES IN THE SHOW
Pepperdine has made the tournament five of the last six seasons, making second round finishes in both 2018 and the Spring 2021 campaign, as well as a first round appearance in the Fall of 2021 and 2022. 
 
This is the 27^th appearance for the Waves' all-time with the first-ever appearance occurring in 1984.  Pepperdine has earned an appearance in 18 NCAA tournaments in the past 27-years.  In 2011, Pepperdine made an NCAA Elite 8 appearance, finishing 6^th nationally overall in the final rankings and sporting a 25-7 overall record.
 
WAVES THIS SEASON
This season, Pepperdine posted a 19-8 overall record and went 15-1 in the West Coast Conference to claim sole ownership of the WCC Championship title.  It was the 12^th conference title in program history and the first time the Waves won it since 2011. 
 
Pepperdine cleaned house in the league's postseason accolades, with head coach Scott Wong tabbing the first WCC Coach of the Year honor of his career.  Grace Chillingworth, Isabel Zelaya and Riley Patterson also took home top honors, having earned player of the year, setter of the year and libero of the year respectively.  Those three, along with Meg Brown and Birdie Hendrickson also tabbed a spot on the All-WCC first team, while Emily Hellmuth, Vanessa Polk and Laine Briggs garnered recognition on the second team, honorable mention squad and all-freshman team respectively.

FOLLOW
Follow @WavesVolleyball on Facebook and Twitter for immediate updates, results and more.  Go to PepperdineWaves.com for all information, releases and schedules.