Women's Volleyball Begins Four-Match Road Trip in Seattle

SEATTLE, Wash. - Pepperdine women's volleyball has taken flight to the Pacific Northwest as the Waves embark on their final road trips of the 2026 regular season. The blue and orange begin a four-match road trip tomorrow night in the Emerald City against Seattle before battling Portland on Saturday.

Thanks to San Diego beating Saint Mary's last Saturday, and the Waves having the head-to-head tiebreaker over LMU (because of a 3-1 win on Oct. 17 in LA), Pepperdine is in first place and holds the keys to a WCC regular season championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Uh oh, guess what day it isss?? Eh? Anybody? 🐪 #MakeWaves | @PepperdineWaves https://t.co/CbfLHpIz16
— Pepperdine Women's Volleyball (@PepperdineWVB) October 28, 2026

Pepperdine has a chance to match its regular-season-best seven-match win streak this weekend. The Waves are catching Seattle at the right time, with the Redhawks having dropped three straight, while Portland has been surfacing around .500 in WCC play after coming off a nail-biting 3-2 win over Seattle last Saturday.

THURSDAY, OCT. 29 | 6 PM PST | ESPN+
Pepperdine at Seattle | Match Notes
Watch | Live Stats | History

SATURDAY, OCT. 31 | 1 PM PST | ESPN+
Pepperdine at Portland
Watch | Live Stats | History

SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS

Seattle was chosen to finish last in the WCC
The Redhawks welcomed three transfers over last offseason, adding junior Hailey McEllrath (middle blocker) and sophomores Bella Jones (setter) and Clara Garcia (defensive specialist/libero).
Seattle clinched its first WCC victory with a 3-1 win over Pacific on October 10
The Redhawks have dropped three consecutive matches
Teagan Melton leads Seattle with 172.0 points, 154 kills,
Grace Jones paces the Redhawks with 310 assists, 11th in the WCC
Hailey McEllrath is the team leader in service aces with 19
Defensively, Janae Demant has 209 digs, leading the team and ranking 11th in the conference
Lexi Jones paces Seattle with 65 blocks, which ranks 7th in the WCC

AMAZING ACCOLADES

Ella Piskorz is five blocks away from recording her 400th career in that category. She is 5th in the program's history in blocks, having surpassed Carrie Romer (1993-96) this past weekend.
Tristen Raymond is 19 assists away from tallying her 1,500th career in that department.
Laine Briggs is 6 aces away from achieving 100 for her career and 107 digs away from eclipsing 1000 for her career.

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST SEATTLE

Pepperdine has a 3-0 record in its brief history against Seattle.
The first matchup between the two programs was on September 11, 2009, a 3-0 win for the Waves.
Pepperdine has yet to lose a set against the Redhawks.
The most recent meeting was on Thursday, October 16, 2025, another 3-0 sweep over Seattle.
Maggie Beauer tallied a team-leading 8 kills, while Chloe Pravednikov had 7 more.
Laine Briggs (14 digs) and Tristen Raymond (10 digs, 24 assists) also played a large role in the victory.

MAKING WAVES IN THE PROS

2024 alumna Birdie Hendrickson is the most recent Pepperdine alum to go pro, signing with Major League Volleyball expansion team DC Flight. The Flight made the announcement on Saturday, October 3.
Hendrickson, who is the 30th former Wave to go pro, was a two-time All-WCC First Team in her pair of seasons spent as a Wave. She also garnered two WCC Player of the Week awards, both in 2024 (September 9 and October 21).
Hendrickson was an all-around player for the Waves, ranking second in digs (331), points (444.5), kills (391), and total attacks (1,056) as a grad student in 2024. Her 2023 campaign was just as consistently good, ranking second on the squad in all four of those same categories.
Birdie set multiple career-highs in 2024, racking up 27.5 points on September 7 at Hawaii. She shined in the month of October, tallying 25 kills in a home match against Saint Mary's on October 17 before registering a career-best four aces on October 24 at San Francisco. Hendrickson put a bow on things, showing off her defensive skills with 22 digs on November 23 at Pacific.

IN THE NATIONAL RANKS

Pepperdine is among the nation's best in several categories including:
hitting percentage (.249, 58th)
assists per set (11.99, 107th)
aces per set (1.66, 77th)
blocks per set (2.87, 11th)
opponent hitting percentage (.175, 36th)

STANDOUT SUPERLATIVES

The Waves marked their longest win streak (seven matches, Sept. 11-Oct. 1) since a nine-match win streak from Oct. 11-Nov. 8 last year before the loss to Saint Mary's on Oct. 3.
Pepperdine has yet to lose a match when taking the first set.
The blue and orange have won eight of 11 matches in which Pepperdine has fewer digs.
The victory over San Francisco on Sept. 26 was the first (and currently the only) win of the year following a first-set loss.

TRACKING TRISTEN'S TRIUMPHS

Junior setter Tristen Raymond ranks 2nd on the team with 163 digs, which is 24th in the West Coast Conference.
Her 732 assists lead the team, rank 2nd in the WCC, and slot 62nd in the country
She is averaging 36.6 assists per match (732 in 20 matches/76 sets), way up from 25.96 last season (753 assists in 29 matches/106 sets)
She is on pace for over 1,000 assists this season and crack the top-10 in program history by the end of her career.

PUTTING THE 'SPECIAL' IN DEFENSIVE SPECIALIST

Defensive specialist Laine Briggs set a career-high and a new Bluejay Invitational-best in digs with 35 on September 6.
Her 317 digs on the season pace the squad and slot 2nd in the conference, only trailing Denver's Madison Winkler (362).
She earned her second consecutive WCC Defensive Player of the Week honor (third career) on Monday, Sept. 21.

MAJESTIC MAGGIE

Junior outside hitter Maggie Beauer tied a season-high in blocks (2.5) and digs (4) against Arizona on Sept. 6
She also racked up a career-high 20 kills against Arizona, a five-set victory over the Wildcats
Maggie's 205 kills are 2nd on the team (only trailing Chloe Pravednikov's 224) and 14th in the WCC
She recorded a new season-high in digs (5) and blocks (3) at Denver on October 8 in the 3-0 win over Denver

BLOCK PARTY

The Waves paced the West Coast Conference with 295 blocks last year, and returning junior Ella Piskorz led all conference qualifiers with 151 (next-best was 126).
As of Wednesday afternoon (10-28-26), Piskorz is tied for the eighth-most blocks in the country with 112.
As of Wednesday afternoon (10-28-26), the Waves pace the WCC with 218 team blocks (next-best is LMU's 174)
Ella is fifth in program history with 395 blocks, having surpassed Carrie Romer (1993-96) this past weekend.

CHLOE'S CRUSHING IT

Chloe Pravednikov's 224 kills pace the squad and rank 10th in the conference.
Her 2.95 kills per set are 12th in the WCC.
She is tied for the team lead in points with 245.5 alongside Ella Piskorz.

ABOUT PEPPERDINE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Pepperdine women's volleyball has reached 26 NCAA Tournaments since 1981 as one of the most successful collegiate programs on the West Coast. The 12-time WCC Champions Waves have consistently produced top talent with 21 All-American selections with honorees in six straight decades. With multiple Olympians going through the program, Kim Hill brought home the program's first gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games.

TICKETS
For more information on ticket packages and to purchase tickets for upcoming home events, visit here.

FOLLOW
To stay up-to-date on the latest Pepperdine women's volleyball news, follow the Waves on social media: @PepperdineWVB on Twitter/X, @pepperdinewvb on Instagram, and Pepperdine Women's Volleyball on Facebook.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Maggie Beauer

Laine Briggs

Ella Piskorz

Chloe Pravednikov

Tristen Raymond

Footer