By Lindsey Besecker
Assistant Sports Editor
The No. 8 Pepperdine women’s volleyball team returned home last weekend with a three-match sweep of the Roger Beasley Honda Premier in San Marcos, Texas, and will jump right back into play with an appearance in the NIKE Invitational in Stockton this weekend.
The Waves will face Radford University, University of Pennsylvania and No. 24 University of Pacific in their third tournament in as many weekends. Pepperdine has faced many top-ranked teams in the opening weeks of its season, and the players see those games as beneficial to helping the team prepare for conference and postseason play.
“I think we’re going to be good (this weekend),” senior middle blocker Lyndsey Hache said. “We’re looking forward to playing another top (team). It’s good to play high-ranked teams so you’re not just cruising through your preseason.”
Pepperdine came into the weekend after a tough loss to No. 1 University of Southern California. The team boarded an airplane at 4:30 a.m. the morning after their night game at USC, to play in its first tournament on the road.
“It was a tough road trip,” Head Coach Nina Matthies said, adding that coming off of the USC match to a tournament early the next morning was a little hectic. “I think we handled (it) well.”
In the first match of the tournament, the Waves faced Arkansas State Friday morning, gaining the victory in four games — 30-28, 26-30, 33-31, 30-22.
“We were definitely looking forward to that match,” Hache said. “It was a rough turn-around (after the USC match), but we put that one behind us … We bared down and knew as a team that we had to come together.”
Senior outside hitter Katie Wilkins led the way with 26 kills for the Waves and Hache added 13 kills in the victory – the first for Arkansas in its season.
“We had a slow start, but it made us stronger in the end,” sophomore outside hitter Katy Daly said. “It was an awesome weekend.”
Matthies said the team had a little rest and relaxation for the remainder of the day, and came back to play two matches on Saturday against Florida State and then-No. 24 Wisconsin.
“We came back and did really well … against Florida State and Wisconsin,” Matthies said. “The (team) played really well.”
Pepperdine defeated Florida State in three games on Saturday morning — 30-20, 30-23, 30-24. Wilkins tallied 19 kills and Daly added nine kills and 12 digs for the Waves.
“We came in and prepared ourselves mentally and physically,” Daly said. “As a team we were that much more prepared.”
Later that night, Pepperdine downed No. 25 Wisconsin in three games — 30-12, 30-28, 30-19 — and improved its record to 5-2 for the season. Wilkins led the team with 21 kills, totaling 66 for her weekend efforts. Daly recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 kills and 15 digs.
“It was a great feeling to play the team and have a really great win,” Hache said.
Wilkins was named the tournament’s “Most Valuable Player” and sophomore setter Melissa Mehlhorn was named with Wilkins to the all-tournament team.
This weekend, the Waves face Radford and Pennsylvania before their Saturday night match against Pacific.
The match will be televised on Sunday at 1 p.m. on College Sports Television. The Waves will also be televised later this season when they host Santa Clara on Oct. 26.
“If we cut down on some hitting errors (and) some serving errors, we’re going to be pretty tough to beat,” Matthies said. “We’re doing some good things as a team.”
September 11, 2003