MALIBU, Calif. — Pepperdine women’s volleyball (19-8, 13-3 WCC) will close out the regular season with a pair of home games against Gonzaga (14-13, 7-9 WCC) and Saint Mary’s (11-16, 9-7 WCC) this week.

The Waves host the Bulldogs Wednesday at noon with the Gaels coming to town Saturday for another noon fixture.

Both matchups will be streamed live on ESPN+, while live stat links can be found on the women’s volleyball team’s schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.

Wednesday’s match marks Friendsgiving at Firestone Fieldhouse. Registration for the postgame Friendsgiving meal can be found here.

A pair of victories would mark the fourth time in program history reaching 15 conference wins in a season, and the third during the Scott Wong era.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Waves earned a 3-2 win over LMU Saturday to sweep the season series with the Lions.
• The Waves won the first, second and fifth sets to claim the victory.
• Vanessa Polk paced Pepperdine with 13 kills to go along with four digs and seven block assists.
• This past Thursday, the Waves saw their 10-match winning streak come to an end in a 3-0 defeat at San Diego.
• Maggie Beauer led the way against the Toreros with 14 kills.

AWESOME ARIZONANS

• Stepping into a bigger role as a sophomore, Chandler, Ariz. native Maggie Beauer is second on the team with 271 total kills, averaging 2.85 per set. She has recorded double-figure kills in 14 matches.
• Peoria, Ariz. native Tristen Raymond has given the Waves a spark as a do-it-all setter. Raymond ranks in Pepperdine’s top five in nearly every statistical category: The lefty leads Pepperdine with 6.92 assists per set, is second in service aces per set (0.40), fourth in blocks per set (0.70) and second in digs per set (2.52).
• Raymond is a two-time West Coast Conference Setter of the Week and one of two Waves to win multiple weekly West Coast Conference awards this season.

NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP

• Sophomore outside hitter Chloe Pravednikov leads the team with 284 kills, which is No. 13 in the WCC. Her 2.87 kills per set lead the team.
• A West Coast Conference All-Freshman Team selection last year, Pravednikov is picking up where she left off late last season, when she emerged as Pepperdine’s consistent third option on offense. Earlier this season, Pravednikov set her career high with 20 kills against Oregon State — one of a team-high 18 matches with 10 kills or more.

O CANADA

• Sophomore middle blocker Ella Piskorz is one of the best young middle blockers in the nation. She ranks No. 25 in the NCAA with 139 total blocks and No. 20 with 1.40 blocks per set.
• She leads the league with 139 total blocks, 1.40 blocks per set and 112 block assists.
• Piskorz has earned West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week a conference-leading three times.

STAY IN YOUR LAINE

• Laine Briggs is one of the best servers in the country: Her 46 aces rank No. 24 in all of Division I, while her 0.46 aces per set rank No. 23 in Division I.
• Earlier this season, she set her career-high with five aces against Portland, which is one of her 18 matches with multiple aces this year.
• Briggs also leads the team and ranks No. 4 in the West Coast Conference with 3.64 digs per set.

GOING BACK TO CALI

• San Diego native Irelynd Lorenzen has been a key piece for Pepperdine’s block during her first year of playing collegiate volleyball in her home state. The Lafayette transfer is second on the team with 1.17 blocks per set, which ranks third in the West Coast Conference.
• Lorenzen also ranks in the top 10 in the West Coast Conference with 81 block assists (No. 5) and 95 total blocks (No. 6).  

BLOCK PARTY

• Pepperdine has one of the best blocking defenses in the nation, ranking No. 14 with 2.77 blocks per set. They hold opponents to hitting .157, which is No. 9 in the NCAA.
• The Waves lead the league with 274 total blocks and are second with 426 block assists.
• Individually, Pepperdine has three players ranked in the top six of the West Coast Conference in block assists: No. 1 Ella Piskorz (112 block assists), No. 3 Irelynd Lorenzen (95) and No. 6 Vanessa Polk (78).

STRONG SERVING

• Pepperdine is No. 14 in the nation with 1.98 aces per set and No. 37 with 196 aces. Both figures lead the West Coast Conference.
• Four Waves rank in the top 20 in the league in service aces per set: Laine Briggs (No. 2, 0.46 per set), Tristen Raymond (No. 5, 0.37), Charis Kai (No. 10, 0.33), and Ryan Gilhooly (No. 14, 0.31).
• The team has had at least one player with multiple aces in all but one match this season.
• Multiple Waves have recorded multiple aces in 22 of the 27 matches this year.

COMEBACK KIDS

• On Oct. 2, Pepperdine trailed San Francisco 18-7 in the first set but came back to win 25-23, which was their biggest single-set comeback of the season. 
• At that point, the comeback was one of four comebacks of 11 points or more. Northeastern came back from a 13-point deficit, while DePaul and Wisconsin rallied back from 11-point deficits.
• Two out of Pepperdine’s four five-set wins have been reverse-sweeps.

RPI WATCH

• Pepperdine is currently No. 47 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings.
• As one of the last teams left out of the NCAA Tournament last year, the Waves had a season-high RPI of No. 46 and were No. 53 in the final RPI rankings.
• With two weeks left in the regular season, Pepperdine’s resume features three wins over top-100 RPI teams: No. 42 UCLA, No. 55 UC Santa Barbara and No. 58 UC Davis 
• Conversely, six of the Waves’ seven losses have been against teams in the top-100 RPI: No. 3 Arizona State, No. 4 Pittsburgh, No. 15 UTEP, No. 32 San Diego, No. 72 GCU and No. 94 Jacksonville.

SEASON OVERVIEW

• In Scott Wong‘s eleventh season at the helm, the Pepperdine Waves were picked second in the West Coast Conference Preseason Coaches’ poll behind San Diego and ahead of LMU. The top three teams in the poll were the last three teams to win the West Coast Conference title.
• Pepperdine also put three players on the West Coast Conference Preseason Team: redshirt junior Vanessa Polk, sophomore Ella Piskorz and Bradley transfer Iva Popovic, who was one of three conference newcomers to make the team
• Pepperdine has ten returners but brings back just one starter from last year: middle blocker Ella Piskorz. However, fellow middle blocker Vanessa Polk, who was a key piece on Pepperdine’s 2023 West Coast Conference Championship squad, will return after redshirting in 2024. Sophomore opposite hitter Chloe Pravednikov, an All-West Coast Conference Freshman Team selection from a year ago, worked her way into the starting rotation late last season and will be expected to have a larger role this season. 

NEW WAVES

• The Waves also welcome six newcomers to the team, consisting of three transfers and three true freshmen. Junior middle blocker Irelynd Lorenzen and sophomore setter Nalani Muniz are both returning to their home state after competing for Lafayette and Southern Utah, respectively. Iva Popovic also comes to Malibu by way of Bradley University and New Mexico Junior College, where she was a two-time NJCAA All-American.
• Pepperdine’s three freshmen are Ryan Gilhooly (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), Tristen Raymond (Peoria, Ariz.) and Alice Vigano (Lake Como, Italy).
• For the first time under Scott Wong, the Waves feature three international players on the roster: Ella Piskorz (Canada), Iva Popovic (Serbia) and Alice Vigano (Italy).

SERIES HISTORY

• The Waves hold a 67-9 lead over Gonzaga in the all-time series.
• Pepperdine has won 10 of the last 11 matches against the Bulldogs.
• The Waves earned a 3-0 sweep in Spokane earlier this season (Nov. 6).
• Pepperdine has a 60-16 lead in the all-time series with Saint Mary’s.
• The Waves have won 11 straight meetings with the Gaels.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

• Gonzaga enters play having lost three of four matches.
• The Bulldogs sit eighth in the WCC with a 7-9 conference record.
• Gonzaga is led by Sjakkie Donkers who ranks second in the conference in kills (393) and kills per set (3.97).
• Saint Mary’s enters on a three-match winning streak and 9-7 mark in conference play.
• The Gaels’ Mya Allen sits fifth in the WCC with 3.39 kills per set to pace the team.

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.

LOGAN, Utah – Utah State volleyball was well-represented in the Mountain West postseason honors released by the conference on Tuesday. Sophomore setter Kaylie Kofe was named the MW Player of the Year while head coach Rob Neilson earned his third career Coach of the Year honor. The Aggies also placed four players on the all-MW team plus one honorable mention.

Kofe led the MW this season with 11.70 assists per set during league play, the most by any MW player since Colorado State’s Katie Oleksak recorded 11.76 assists per set in 2018. Kofe recorded the most assists by a MW player this season in a three-set match (44 at New Mexico), a four-set match (65 at San Jose State) and a five-set match (62 vs Boise State). She is one of only two players in the nation with multiple matches of 60 or more assists and currently ranks fifth over the full season with 10.94 assists per set. Kofe has also added 18 service aces and 19 blocks and averaged 2.63 digs per set during MW play.

Kofe is USU’s first-ever conference player of the year. USU has twice received conference freshman of the year honors previously, twice each in the WAC and Big West.

In addition to Kofe, senior middle blocker Tierney Barlow, sophomore opposite side hitter Loryn Helgesen and sophomore outside hitter Mara Štiglic were named all-MW selections while sophomore outside hitter Andrea Simovski earned honorable mention.

Barlow earned the honor for the third time in her career after leading the conference with a .471 hitting percentage in league play, ranking as the third-highest hitting percentage in MW history and the highest since 2017. Barlow recorded 11 matches during league play with a .500 hitting percentage or better, including a streak of seven-straight to end the season, while still averaging 3.0 kills per set. She led the MW with three instances of hitting over .650 with at least 12 kills; no other player in the MW recorded more than one. Barlow compiled a streak of 97 consecutive attacks without an error during MW play, the longest-known such streak in Division-I history according to available research. Barlow also averaged 0.90 blocks per set and added 21 aces during conference play.

Helgesen was the only MW player to rank in the top 10 for hitting percentage while also averaging over 3.50 kills per set. Helgesen ranked second in the league with 260 total kills during conference play and ranked second with 4.49 points per set and ninth with a .328 hitting percentage. Helgesen broke USU’s program record for hitting percentage on 20 or more attempts, hitting .704 (20-1-7) against Grand Canyon. She recorded six matches during league play with a hitting percentage over .300 with at least 25 attempts.

Štiglic was named to the all-MW team after ranking seventh in kills per set (3.63) and fourth in points per set (4.27) during conference play. Štiglic also ranked sixth in the MW with 0.31 aces per set, totaling 21. She hit double-digit kills in 17 of 18 matches during MW action, totaling nine kills in her lone match not reaching the plateau. Štiglic also recorded seven matches with multiple aces.

Simovski earned honorable mention after ranking just outside the top 10 during league play both with 2.84 kills and 3.39 points per set. She also ranked third in the league with 0.36 aces per set. One of the top five passing outside hitters in the MW, Simovski recorded a .964 reception percentage on a team-high 335 total reception attempts. Simovski recorded four double-doubles during conference play, including a 19-kill, 20-dig outing against Boise State.

Neilson was named the MW Coach of the Year for the third time in the past five seasons, also receiving the award in 2021 and 2023. Neilson guided the Aggies to an 18-0 record in MW play this season, becoming just the sixth team in MW history to go undefeated in conference play.

Up Next

The Aggies prepare for the Mountain West Tournament held at the Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada. Utah State enters as the No. 1 overall seed and will begin its run in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 28, at 2 p.m. (MT), against the winner between Boise State and Grand Canyon. Should USU advance, the MW Championship will be on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 4 p.m. (MT).

Fans can follow the Aggie volleyball program on Twitter, @USUVolleyball, on Facebook at /USUVolleyball or on Instagram, @usuvolleyball. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program on Twitter, @USUAthletics, Facebook at /USUAthletics and on Instagram, @USUAthletics.

 – USU –