Waves’ 3-2 win over USF ties team-record for wins in a row at 17. No. 4 national ranking is highest in the program’s history.
By Lindsey Besecker
Assistant Sports Editor
The No. 4 Pepperdine women’s volleyball team has been making history in the past few weeks — including the team’s highest national ranking ever — and will look for a chance to break another record this weekend when it faces No. 13 Loyola Marymount University.
The Waves have won 17 consecutive matches, and if they win Saturday’s match, the victory will break last season’s consecutive win streak.
“It was just kind of in the back of our minds,” senior outside hitter Katie Wilkins said. “We’re just pretty focused on winning all our games right now and making it to the Final Four.”
Before NCAA playoffs, Pepperdine still has five more West Coast Conference matches, but the team hopes to finish conference 14-0 — a goal it set in the beginning of the season.
“We’ve had some challenging matches that have been tough, but that’s a part of it,” sophomore setter Melissa Mehlhorn said. “We’re just aiming for that goal.”
Pepperdine stepped closer to that goal this past weekend by winning road matches over St. Mary’s University and University of San Francisco.
“It was a really good weekend for us,” Wilkins said. “We built our confidence and proved to ourselves that we could get through it together.”
Pepperdine started the weekend with a 3-0 victory over St. Mary’s — 31-29, 30-25, 30-27. Four Pepperdine players recorded double-doubles in the match. Mehlhorn had 45 assists and 13 digs, Wilkins contributed 11 kills and 11 digs and sophomore outside hitter Katy Daly recorded 11 kills and 13 assists. Rounding out the four, sophomore outside hitter Breegan Mulligan had 10 kills and 10 digs. Freshman middle blocker Sophia Milo added 11 kills.
“Our team goals are important, and obviously we are spreading things out offensively and defensively,” Head Coach Nina Matthies said. “The more people you have doing that, the better. Obviously, it’s a good thing.”
Pepperdine then traveled to San Francisco for a Saturday match. The Waves edged the Dons 3-2 — 30-20, 26-30, 30-25, 25-30, 15-10. Wilkins recorded 28 kills, nine digs and seven blocks for Pepperdine. Wilkins played with a broken ring finger on her right hand, but she finished the match by changing her swing.
However, Wilkins said when she changed her swing, it caused her to injure her shoulder. She said both her injuries are better, and she will be in good shape to play in the match this weekend.
“It’s a lot better now,” she said. “I can still play on it without feeling it.”
Also in the match, Mehlhorn tallied her 1,000th set assist this season. Much like the team’s winning streak, Mehlhorn said she has not been paying attention to her total set numbers.
“I don’t really know where that puts me,” she said. “I’ve never thought about it. I just set for each game and that’s it.”
Daly contributed 19 kills in the match, and senior middle blocker Lyndsey Hache added 10 kills and five blocks.
Pepperdine looks to extend its winning streak to 18 this weekend — which would be another record for the team – and looks to get its ninth victory this season over a top 25 team.
It has defeated No. 14 Notre Dame, No. 24 Pacific, No. 16 UC Santa Barbara, No. 24 Wisconsin, No. 24 University of San Francisco, No. 20 LMU, No. 16 University of San Diego and No. 12 Santa Clara this season.
“That’s an accomplishment right there, to beat (ranked WCC teams) twice,” Matthies said. “We’re trying to stay in the top four and five. That’s incredible. That’s like our men’s basketball being ranked No. 4 in the nation. That’s incredible for us to be there, ahead of Stanford, ahead of Nebraska, up there with the big boys.
“We need to keep our perspective. It doesn’t matter where anyone puts you on a piece of paper. We have to keep winning.”
November 06, 2003