The 2nd-ranked Pepperdine beach volleyball team has six matches on the docket this week, first hosting Grand Canyon and 5th-ranked Long Beach State on Wednesday before traveling to 6th-ranked Hawai’i to challenge the Rainbow Wahine and Cal Poly on both Friday and Saturday.
DUAL 15 – No. 2 Pepperdine (13-1) vs. Grand Canyon (14-4) | Wednesday, April 5 at Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif., 1 p.m.
DUAL 16 – No. 2 Pepperdine vs. No. 5 Long Beach State (17-3) | Wednesday, April 5 at Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif., 3:20 p.m.
DUAL 17 – No. 2 Pepperdine vs. Cal Poly (10-10, 1-2 Big West) | Friday, April 7 at Queen’s Beach in Honolulu, Hawai’i, 1 p.m.
DUAL 18 – No. 2 Pepperdine at No. 6 Hawai’i (18-4, 3-1 Big West) | Friday, April 7 at Queen’s Beach in Honolulu, Hawai’i, 4 p.m.
DUAL 19 – No. 2 Pepperdine vs. Cal Poly (10-10, 1-2 Big West) | Saturday, April 8 at Queen’s Beach in Honolulu, Hawai’i, 4 p.m.
DUAL 20 – No. 2 Pepperdine at No. 6 Hawai’i (18-4, 3-1 Big West) | Saturday, April 8 at Queen’s Beach in Honolulu, Hawai’i, 7 p.m. | Watch: OC 16 Sports
FORMAT – The matches at Zuma Beach will be five-court format, with all five matches being played simultaneously. The matches at Hawai’i will be played in two-set format with positions No. 5 and No. 6 going first, No. 3 and No. 4 going second and No. 1 and No. 2 finishing the match.
COVERAGE – The last match of the weekend on Saturday against Hawai’i will air live on OC Sports. All links available on PepperdineWaves.com. Follow @WavesBeachVB on Twitter and Facebook for live updates before, during and after matches. Also, go to PepperdineWaves.com for updates, recaps, results and more.
LOOKING AHEAD – After this week, the Waves have one more tournament on the road before hitting postseason. Pepperdine will travel to Tallahassee, Fla. to challenge No. 4 Florida State twice and each No. 9 Stetson and No. 15 Florida International once.
CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP – The Waves are currently on a 12-match winning streak, with eight of the matches being won with sweeping results. In the last 10-matches, Pepperdine has won 94-of-107 total sets played against opponents.
THE NO. 2 WAVES – The Waves rank 2nd in the AVCA Coaches Poll for the fourth-consecutive week this week, after amassing a 13-1 overall record, including a 6-1 record against nationally ranked opposition. Pepperdine has gone 7-1 at home, 2-0 on the road and 4-0 in a neutral setting this season. Leading the pairs in the No. 1-spot are Delaney Knudsen and Madalyn Roh who possess a 10-4 overall record in dual action for the Waves. Brittany Howard and Corinne Quiggle lead the Waves in the No. 2 position with a 13-1 overall record for the Waves. Pepperdine’s No. 3 and No. 4 pairs, Skylar Caputo and Heidi Dyer and Anika Wilson and Deahna Kraft each have gone 12-2 for the Waves this season, while the Gigi Hernandez and Kaity Bailey have earned the No. 5-slot with a 7-1 overall record thus far.
OPPONENT NOTES – The Waves will take on Grand Canyon, a team receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll and 5th-ranked Long Beach State on Wednesday. Pepperdine holds a 3-0 all-time record over Grand Canyon, dating back to the 2013 campaign when the Waves won three-straight through 2015 wit 5-0 sweeps. GCU has gone 14-4 overall this season and last week, sweeping Santa Clara and CSU Bakersfield before falling to No. 8 Arizona 4-1. The Waves possess a 16-2 overall record against Long Beach State since the 2012 season. From 2012-13, the Waves won eight-straight matches against the 49ers before the opposition took the first win 3-2 en route to a AVCA National Championship title. From 2016 to current, Pepperdine has won four-consecutive matches, including three by 5-0 sweeps and one 3-2 win this season. This season, LBSU has gone 17-3 against opponents to ranked 5th in the AVCA Coaches Poll. Last week, the 49ers defeated Hawai’i to move up in the rankings, Sacramento State, Cal Poly and CSUN.
Last week, Pepperdine downed Hawai’i with a 3-2 win at Zuma, amassing an 8-1 record over Hawai’i all-time since 2012, including five-straight from 2012-14 in 5-0 sweeping fashion. The only loss the Rainbow Wahine have given the Waves was in 2015 in the only match ever played at Hawai’i. This season, UH has gone 18-4 against opponents, including three wins against Cal Poly, Sacramento State and CSUN and won loss to Long Beach State last week. Lastly, Cal Poly has posted an even 10-10 overall record this season to receive votes in the coaches poll. Earlier this season, the Waves swept the Mustangs at Zuma Beach. All-time, Pepperdine has gone 2-0 against the team including one win in both 2016 and 2017 thus far. Last week, the Mustangs split the weekend with wins against CSUN and Sacramento State and losses to Hawai’i and Long Beach State.
#NCAATOP10 – Pepperdine is not only the sole beach volleyball team that has been featured on the #NCAATop10 lists in social media, but the Waves have earned a spot in three of the last four weeks. This week, sophomore Nikki Lyons and graduate studentTiffany Morales made their way onto the list at the No. 9 spot as the pair brought the hammer down on CSU Bakersfield at Zuma to help lead the Waves to another 5-0 sweep. In previous weeks, Pepperdine’s No. 1 pair senior Delaney Knudsen and sophomore Madalyn Roh and the No. 2 duo graduate student Brittany Howard and junior Corinne Quiggle have also earned the honor as each pair broke the top-10 at No. 7.
PRESEASON HONORS & POLLS – The Waves ranked 4th in the AVCA preseason poll and were picked as the favorite to finish as the West Coast Conference Champions again by the WCC coaches. Pepperdine was also charted in the No. 4 spot on DiG Magazine. Five Waves, senior Delaney Knudsen, junior Corinne Quiggle and sophomores Heidi Dyer, Skylar Caputo and Madalyn Roh earned Preseason All-WCC accolades.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL HISTORY – The Pepperdine women’s sand volleyball program has been at the forefront of the sport since it was introduced in 2012. The Waves went a perfect 14-0 in dual match play and won the inaugural AVCA Collegiate Sand Volleyball National Team Championship in Gulf Shores, Ala. Pepperdine’s Caitlin Racich — the program’s first-ever scholarship recipient — and partner Summer Ross took home the pairs national crown as well. In 2013, the Waves marched back to the national title match but fell 3-2 while playing shorthanded. The Waves returned with a vengeance in 2014, going 18-1 in route to the national championship title. The Waves boast a nation-best 14 AVCA All-Americans: Lara Dykstra (2013, 14), Lilla Frederick (2012, 13), Kim Hill (2012, 13), Kelley Larsen (2014, 15), Racich (2012, 13), Ross (2012), Becca Strehlow (2014) and Kellie Woolever (2014, 15). Hill stands as the first, and to date only, student-athlete to earn AVCA All-American first team honors in both indoor and sand volleyball in a single season. . Last season, the Waves worked a position in the field of eight for the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores, Ala., finishing 5th overall. The Waves enter the 2017 season with an 85-13 record.
NCAA STATUS – This season marks the second season which beach volleyball will be an NCAA-sanctioned sport, with the NCAA Championships to be held again in Gulf Shores, Ala. from May 5-7. Last season in the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships in Gulf Shores after an eight-team field of competition, USC took the first-ever championship title. Previously, collegiate sand volleyball, completed the fourth and final year as an “emerging sport” in the 2015 season. It was given 10 years to gain the minimum 40 sponsoring institutions for two years in a row to be considered an NCAA Championship sport. With requirements met in record time, sand volleyball was voted into NCAA Championship Sport status in 2015. The NCAA will host only a team championship, and not a pairs championship.
MATTHIES – Nina Matthies’ retired from coaching the indoor game following the 2013 season and finishes her 31-season run with a career record of 590-343 (.632). In the span, Matthies led the Waves to 10 conference championships and 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. She is by far the WCC’s all-time winningest coach and is a 10-time WCC Coach of the Year. Matthies was among the world’s top players and is a member of the Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame and in 2015 was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame and earned the USA Volleyball’s All-Time Great Female Beach Player award. In 2009, Dig Magazine rated her and former partner Linda Hanley as the second-best women’s beach team of all time. She won two AIAW national championships as a player at UCLA. In 2013, she was honored by her peers as the inaugural winner of the AVCA Sand Volleyball Coach of the Year award. She enters the 2017 beach season, her sixth at the helm, with a 85-13 record. She will be assisted this season once again by Marcio Sicoli, along with second-year volunteer coach Gustavo Rocha.
SICOLI – Marcio Sicoli is in his sixth season assisting Nina Matthies in the sand, after spending six season with her as assistant indoor volleyball coach. Sicoli is highly lauded for his approach to training and served as head coach for Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings during their gold-medal run at the 2012 London Olympics as well as the Walsh Jennings and April Ross bronze medal run at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Olympica. Sicoli also served as the assistant coach for the Brazilian Olympic Women’s Beach Volleyball Team from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, his team of Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede took home the silver medal in Athens. He currently serves as coach to 2016 Olympic hopefuls Walsh Jennings and April Ross.
ZUMA BEACH – The Waves call Zuma Beach “home,” practicing and hosting all home events at one of Malibu’s most picturesque locations. Courts are located just west of Point Dume, between Towers 2 & 3 or at the 29800 block of the Pacific Coast Highway.
News courtesy of Pepperdine Athletics.
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