OMAHA, Neb. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team, a team receiving votes in the AVCA coaches preseason poll, succumbed to a three-set loss (25-12, 25-21, 25-15) to Texas A&M to close out the Omaha Invite in Baxter Arena on Saturday afternoon.
 
To highlight the weekend, graduate setter Isabel Zelaya hit a career milestone, surpassing the 4,000-career assist mark and becoming the fifth Wave in program history to have achieved the feat.  She now ranks fourth in the Pepperdine women's volleyball record books, with room to climb, at the 4,045-career assist mark.  There have been two that reached the mark in the 21^st century, ranked second Kiah Fiers (2006-09 - 4,410 assists) and third Melissa Mehlhorn (2002-05 – 4,387 assists).  Becci Roehl (1994-97 – 5,020 assists) is the current program leader.
 
Pepperdine will return home to face UC Santa Barbara on August 31 in Firestone Fieldhouse.
 
BIG WAVES
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 19 assists, 3 digs, 2 kills
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 5 kills, 2 aces, 4 digs
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 5 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs
Birdie Hendrickson (Rogersville, Mo./Logan-Rogersville HS/Florida): 5 kills, 4 digs
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 4 kills, 1 ace
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 6 digs
Kenadie Patterson (Oakdale, Calif./Gregori HS): 2 blocks
 
WAVES VS. AGGIES
The Aggies led in all statistical categories, but most notably offensively with 43 kills on a .420 success rate, compared to the Waves 22 kills on a .026 effort.  The opposition hit .500 or above in the first two sets alone, including 12 kills on 21 errorless swings in the first set to start the match.  Texas A&M also lead at the net with 8.0 blocks to Pepperdine's 3.0 and produced 27 digs and five aces to the Waves 21 digs and four aces.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          7          8          26        -.038
2          12        7          28        .179
3          3          5          24        -.083
TTL      22        20        78        .026
 
TEXAS A&M ATTACK BY SET
Set       K          E          TA        Pct
1          12        0          21        .571
2          16        3          26        .500
3          15        6          34        .265
TTL      43        9          81        .420
 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Texas A&M got off to a hot start in the first set, building off a six-point run to open the match en route to a 12-2 lead.  Though kills from Birdie Hendrickson and Emily Hellmuth helped the cause, the Waves were unable to close the gap, succumbing to a 25-12 first set loss.
 
The second set would prove to be tighter than the first, with each side of the net going point-for-point en route to 10's on the board.  Isabel Zelaya then put the ball over on two to give the Waves a one-point lead, though the opposition countered and then tabbed an ace to pull ahead themselves.  A kill from Hellmuth and an ace from Meg Brown kept the score tied at 15-15, but after a 17-all tie, the Aggies started to build enough momentum to pull ahead and win the set 25-21.
 
A&M came out firing again in the third set to build an 8-2 advantage early.  A pair of block collaborations from Kenadie Patterson with either Hellmuth or Zelaya kept the Waves in the set, but another strong offensive output from the opposition would prove costly en route to a 21-12 deficit.  Pepperdine capitalized on a few errors from across the to put together a few more opportunities, though the Aggies closed things out with a few kills 25-15.
 
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.