MALIBU, Calif. — After an already memorable regular season featuring the program's first West Coast Conference Championship since 2011, the Pepperdine women's volleyball team will take the first step into postseason action with the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

MATCH #28 — Friday (December 1) at Bohler Gym in Pullman, Wash.: Pepperdine (19-8, 15-1 WCC) vs. #18/#5 Dayton (31-2, 18-0 A10) at 4 p.m. PT | ESPN+ ($)

MATCH #29 — Pending first round win: Saturday (December 2) at Bohler Gym in Pullman, Wash.: Pepperdine (19-8, 15-1 WCC) vs. winner #10/#4 Washington State (24-7, 14-6 Pac 12) and Grand Canyon (23-7, 13-3 WAC) at 7 p.m. PT | ESPN+ ($)

UP NEXT — After the first and second rounds, the NCAA Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds will occur on December 7 and 9.

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+ & COVERAGE — The matches will stream live on ESPN+.  Live stats for all matches will be available with links found on PepperdineWaves.com. 

NCAA BERTH — 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 is the program's 27th appearance in an NCAA Tournament overall, while it is also the Waves' fourth-consecutive tournament appearance and its fifth in the last six years. 

Only 13 teams in the nation have been to 27 NCAA Tournaments all-time: Penn State (43), Stanford and Nebraska (42), Hawai'i (41), Texas (40), USC (39), BYU (36), Florida (34), Louisville (32), UC Santa Barbara (30), Minnesota (28), Wisconsin and Pepperdine (27).

WAVES IN THE SHOW — Pepperdine has advanced to postseason 31 times overall in the program's 47-year history, including four AIAW tournaments in addition to the NCAA appearances.  The Waves have compiled a cumulative record of 41-36 (.532).

The Waves have earned a berth to the NCAA Championships on 27 occasions - 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 - and have gone 19-26 (.422) overall.

In 2002, Pepperdine advanced to the Elite Eight and reached the regional final once again in 2011. The Waves competed at the AIAW Championships in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979 while the 1995 team participated in the 20-team National Invitational Volleyball Championships. Pepperdine finished fourth at the AIAW Championships in 1976 and 1978. Last season, the Waves faced top-seed Stanford in the opening round played in Palo Alto, falling in a tough four-set battle.

WCC CHAMPIONS — The Waves clinched the West Coast Conference Championship on Saturday, November 11 with a sweep over 2022 NCAA Final Four competitor San Diego. 

Pepperdine remained undefeated in league action through the first 14 games of the conference slate, finishing 15-1.  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.

POSTSEASON HONORS — Nine Waves were honored with the West Coast Conference postseason awards, including four top honors.  Head coach Scott Wong tabbed the first WCC coach of the year honor of his career, while Grace Chillingworth was WCC player of the year, Isabel Zelaya was WCC setter of the year and Riley Patterson was WCC libero of the year. 

In addition to those top honors, those three as well as Meg Brown and Birdie Hendrickson tabbed All-WCC first team acclaim.  It was the second time in program history that Pepperdine placed five players on the first team in a single season, last having occurred in 2001.  The Waves had, however, tabbed at least four players to the first team in five other seasons (1988, 2001, 2002, 2011, 2020, 2023).  Emily Hellmuth also earned a spot on the second team, while Vanessa Polk received honorable mention honors and Laine Briggs was named to the All-Freshman squad.

WEEKLY HONORS — This season, Grace Chillingworth garnered WCC Offensive Player of the Week acclaim on four separate occasions, including back-to-back honors on October 16 and 23, as well as November 6 and 13.

THE STREAK — After a 1-6 start to the 2023 campaign, the Waves rallied tough, winning the next 17-consecutive matches including 14 in straight sets from September 10 through November 11.  The 17 wins in a row tied the program's second-best streak in history, which had last been achieved in 2002 (17) and 2003 (25).  It was the eighth time in program history that Pepperdine has won 13-or-more games consecutively as well.

The Waves only dropped only six sets against conference opponents this season, having tabbed a 47-6 record by sets.  At one point from October 19 to November 16, the team had won 21 sets.

SQUAD GOALS — Pepperdine has gone 19-8 overall this season and remains perfect against West Coast Conference opponents with a 15-1 record.  As a team, Pepperdine averages 13.30 kills/set on a .262 clip, while adding 12.29 assists, 1.52 aces, 14.51 digs and 2.07 blocks per set.  On average, the Waves allow 12.08 kills/set on a .192 output, along with 11.22 assists, 1.22 aces, 13.67 digs and 1.96 blocks per set. 

Grace Chillingworth, Birdie Hendrickson, Meg Brown and Emily Hellmuth lead the attack efforts for Pepperdine, having amassed 3.78, 2.90, 2.41 and 1.95 kills/set respectively.  Chillingworth, Riley Patterson, Hendrickson and Brown lead the squad at the service line, having marked 30, 25, 21 and 20 aces apiece to average 0.33, 0.27, 0.24 and 0.25 aces/set respectively.  Patterson also leads the effort on the back line, having amassed 3.71 digs/set this season after leading the team with 338 total digs.  Hendrickson, Chillingworth and Isabel Zelaya also produce 2.53, 2.36 and 2.04 digs/set respectively as well.  Zelaya is the primary playmaker for the squad with 909 total assists and 10.10 assists/set.  Lastly at the net, Brown and Vanessa Polk lead the efforts with 0.94 and 0.88 blocks/set respectively.  They have each tabbed 75 blocks, while Polk leads with 13 solo rejections and Brown has tabbed nine.

LAST TIME OUT — Pepperdine closed out the regular season with a week-full of three road matches, dropping a pair of matches to Pacific and SMU and besting San Francisco.  In the final win of the conference slate of USF, the Waves blasted 46 kills on a .294 clip en route to a 25-15, 25-13, 25-23 win.  The squad allowed the opposition only 25 kills on a .111 output.  Pepperdine added seven aces, 50 digs and 6.0 blocks, while the Dons were good for four aces, 31 digs and 3.0 blocks.  Laine Briggs led at the service line with a career-high four aces, while Riley Patterson produced a team-high 17 digs.  Meg Brown and Grace Chillingworth led the attack front with 12 and 10 kills respectively - Brown on a .556 clip and with a team-best three blocks in the process.  Isabel Zelaya was good for 29 assists.

The Waves fell to SMU, a team receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll, in the final bout of the regular season, dropping 25-21, 25-23, 25-16.  Pepperdine posted 36 kills on a .139 output, with three aces, 45 digs and 5.0 blocks, while the opposition was good for 45 kills on a .284 clip, with six aces, 51 digs and 10.0 blocks.  Birdie Hendrickson led the squad with 10 kills, while Chillingworth put in a team-high 15 digs.  Four separate players posted two blocks and Zelaya led with 31 assists and three aces.

THE COMPETITION — Dayton is currently ranked #18 in the nation and earned the #5 regional seed after having gone 31-2 throughout the regular season.  The Flyers went an untarnished 18-0 in A10 action to earn the league title, but has only faced three nationally ranked teams this season, beating #24 Western Kentucky 3-0 before falling to #12 Marquette and #2 Louisville - both in five sets.  All-time, the Waves and Flyers have faced each other four times, with the Waves winning the first two in five set battles in 2006 and 2011.  Pepperdine and Dayton have faced once before in postseason, and the Waves fell in five sets on November 30, 2012 in the first round in Eugene.  Earlier in that same year, the Waves lost to the Flyers on the road in four sets.

Washington State – a team ranked #12 nationally and that earned the #4 seed in the region – has gone 24-7 overall and 14-6 in conference play this season, most recently besting both #18 Arizona State and Washington to close out the regular season.  Pepperdine has faced WSU twice in program history, winning both with a 2-0 win on neutral hardwood in 1978 and a 3-2 win at a neutral site last season - the day after the Waves also bested #6 Minnesota in their home gym.

This season, Grand Canyon has boasted a 23-7 overall record and a 13-3 record in league action. The Lopes won the WAC tournament after beating California Baptist, UT Rio Grande Valley and Stephen F. Austin.  If Pepperdine and GCU face in the second round, it will be the first time the teams have ever met.

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 4,903 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.