MALIBU, Calif. – Pepperdine women's soccer has signed eight into the class of 2030 to join the team in Malibu this fall, head coach Tim Ward announced Thursday. 
 
All eight originate from California as Ward and co. do not have to travel far to find the next generation of Waves. Losing eight seniors and graduates, Pepperdine has reloaded the roster with offensive threats, in addition to two defenders and a goalie for coach Kevin Arellano's goalkeeper union. 
 
The Waves will open the 2026 campaign with lots of new faces as five of the starting 11 will walk the stage to graduate this May. Starting this season, the West Coast Conference has added a four-team postseason tournament to the tail end of the regular season. With the top seeds hosting the matches, the back-to-back conference champions look to keep the trophy in Malibu for a third straight year.
 
Eva Awoyinka – Forward – MVLA ECNL – Belmont, CA
 
"We are super excited to have Eva Awoyinka join our Pepperdine Soccer program next fall," Ward said. "Eva has a beautiful first touch, awareness, great composure under pressure, and a really high soccer IQ. She is a gifted, wide attacking player who we believe is just getting better and better."
 
"We know that she comes from a rich tradition of success and also knows how to compete against the very best players in the country. Eva is also a gifted student and really shines in her academics. She is a wonderful sister, friend and her character fits right in with our program."
 
"We are so grateful to her and her family for choosing Pepperdine and we cannot wait to have Eva here for the next four years because we believe she's going to shine."
 
Addison Bartell – Goalkeeper – The King's Academy – Sunnyvale, CA
"We feel incredibly fortunate that Addison Bartell is going to come to Pepperdine and be a part of our goalkeeping union for the fall of 2026," Ward said. "Her recruiting journey is a crazy one, and we are so very grateful for her patience, faith and perseverance in this process as we feel like she is one of the better goalkeepers in the country in the age group."
 
"We know that she has performed on the biggest stages and at the highest levels, with composure, skill and excellence while carrying herself with an aura calm and strength that we look for in our goalkeepers."
 
"We sort of believe that God has brought Addison here into Malibu for such a time as this. A brilliant student and an even more wonderful human being, we are so very grateful and excited that Addison is going to be a Wave for us.
 
 
Erin Ha – Defender – Slammers FC  – Yorba Linda, CA
 
"We are so excited to have Erin Ha joining our Pepperdine program," Ward said. "She comes from an amazingly successful background with Slammers HBK and she has a ton of experience competing with and against the best players in the country."
 
"She is strong, fierce, skillful, versatile, and a flat out baller-winner," Ward said. "And besides all those things on the field, she is a wonderful human being, student and friend off of it. We're so excited for her and her family to be joining our Waves family here in Malibu, and we have no doubt that big things await her in the years to come."
 
 
Samantha Hosford – Forward – LA Breakers – La Canada, CA
"We are so very pleased and excited to have Samantha Hosford joining our Pepperdine soccer program this fall," Ward said. "Samantha comes to us from the L.A. Breakers 2008 team where she consistently leads and impacts her team in a variety of attacking areas.
 
"It would be fair to say that we are incredibly excited about Samantha's future here. Besides being an unbelievable student, she happens to be an unbelievable young lady of character."
 
"We are so very grateful to her and her family for their patience and ultimately their decision to come to Pepperine as Samantha's future is super bright."
 
Fiona McCormick – Midfielder/Forward – DeAnza Force SC – Santa Clara, CA
"We are blessed to have Fiona joining our Pepperdine squad this upcoming year," Ward said. "Fiona has versatility, skill and upside written all over her."
 
"Her experience internationally with the Irish national team is going to be a blessing to the rest of our squad, as she will have experienced, like many other Waves in our current team, some matches at the international level, which we always believe, just adds another layer of quality to our players."
 
"Fiona is a wonderful human being, a great teammate, with a joyful smile, and does exceptionally well in the classroom. We're super grateful to her and her family for choosing Pepperdine and can't wait to begin working with her this fall."
 
 
Sahaana Potti – Forward – DeAnza Force SC – Saratoga, CA
 
"Sahaana comes to us as an exciting and talented attacking personality who's excellent in 1v1 moments as well as very, very accomplished in and around the goal," Ward said. As good as we think Sahaana is now, we truly believe that she is going to cause a lot of defenders problems in the next four years."
 
"As wonderfully competitive as she is on the field, we also love the fact that Sahana is equally as bright as a student in the classroom. Like all of our Wave recruits, Sahaana has such a beautiful and strong spirit about her and it's going to be a joy to work with her for the next four years."
 
"We are super grateful to not only her, but to her family for encouraging and supporting her to come our direction as we think she is going to be a big part of what we're doing here at Pepperdine in the years to come."
 
Kate Ryan – Forward – Beach FC – Palos Verdes, CA
"We are so excited to have Kate Ryan joining our Pepperdine soccer program," Ward said. "Besides being a great player with massive upside and a great teammate, it was her spirit and faith that won us over. After spending the day with her family on her recruiting visit, we knew that she was meant to be a Pepperdine Wave."
 
"We were so very grateful for her family's support and are so excited about what the next four years hold for her and her teammates as we believe Kate will have a massive influence at Pepperdine not only on the soccer field, but off of it as well."
 
 
Emjae Soriano – Defender – San Diego Surf ECNL  – San Marcos, CA
 
"Emjae Soriano was the first recruit to verbally commit from this incredible 2026 class," Ward said. "She has been a captain of her highly successful San Diego Surf soccer team and we believe she will be a future leader for our Waves program."
"Besides her high soccer IQ, we love the fact that she is already coaching some of the youngsters at the Surf soccer club in San Diego and is already a role model for future Waves. Emjae is a super versatile player that can play anywhere in the back row and also as a deep lying playmaker in midfield."
"She's a wonderfully bright young lady, a fantastic student, a tremendous human being, and we're so very honored to have her and her family join our Waves family in Malibu this fall."
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE WOMEN'S SOCCER
Pepperdine women's soccer has been competitive since season one in 1993. As just the third head coach in the program's history, Tim Ward has led the Waves to 15 NCAA tournament appearances, winning the West Coast Conference six separate times and taking his squad to the round of 16 four times, most recently in 2021. With 24 winning seasons, Ward has proven he can lead consistently with excellence, garnering an overall record of 320-157-78.
 
FOLLOW
To stay up-to-date on the latest Pepperdine women's soccer news, follow the Waves on social media @PepperdineWSOC.