Four years. Exactly 1,460 days.
It seems like a long time, yet it passed in the blink of an eye, and for those in the Class of 2025 who donned the “Waves” across their chest, their time is shortly coming to an end.
From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, these athletes gave Pepperdine everything they had, showcasing what it means to be a Wave. As the Class of 2025 approaches graduation, departing athletes speak on their time as athletes and what it meant to represent the Waves.
“I became a man here,” said Brendan Read, senior Men’s Volleyball libero.
Growing Alongside the Pepperdine Community
The Pepperdine community is a small group, but the student-athletes can forever pride themselves on being a part of an even smaller community within it.
Read and Lexie Martin, senior Women’s Swim and Dive diver and captain, both found the Pepperdine community to be the highlight of their experience.
Specifically for Read, part of his impact was a result of the tight-knit, family-oriented community the team has. He said the strong bonds formed over the years made him not only a better player but a better person.
“Not to say that I’m a full grown, fully mature adult, but I think because of my time here, I’m so much more well-equipped to go out into the real world and to work hard,” Read said.
Some of his favorite memories are with the seniors, or “old guys,” as the men’s team calls them, sitting around the table and telling stories of their past experiences, including all the good, the bad, the cool or just stupid things they’ve done over the years.
“That’s just such a cool tradition we have because when we were freshmen, we were doing that with the old guys; we always wanted to hear what they had to say,” Read said.
Martin has been a Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete each year and a PCSC Athlete of the Week twice, according to Pepperdine Athletics. As Martin looked back at her four-year tenure, she said the team growth is what she will always be most proud of.
“We’ve set a really strong culture on the Swim and Dive team, and it’s only grown to become more united and full of love since my freshman year,” Martin said. “That is kind of what brought me in. I also just love Pepperdine as a whole; the religious community has been a huge part of my journey and the academic experience as well.”
Outside the pool, she said she’ll miss the little moments — studying together, hanging at the beach or grabbing a bite to eat — but staying connected as an alumni will be important to her.
“Staying connected any way that I can with teammates that I’m especially close to and also carrying gratitude for the team and that experience, it’s taught me a lot of lessons about relationships and how to navigate that with different personalities,” Martin said. “There’s a lot of things I’m like taking away from it too that I’m hoping [will] serve me in the next chapter of life, even though it looks a little bit different.”
Senior Men’s Tennis player Linus Carlsson Halldin came to Pepperdine from Sweden not knowing what the American culture would bring for him. Today, Halldin is a leader in the Pepperdine community as he is the president of the Waves Leadership Council for student-athletes.
“I’ve thought about making an impact on the people around me,” Halldin said. “I’ve more reflected maybe on being a good teammate and being a good captain.”
Halldin said he found the Pepperdine community to be special, so he felt it necessary to be involved.
“I think I’ve been fortunate to have a group of very good teammates,” Halldin said. “I think I’ll keep having good memories with them since a lot of them are European.”
Pepperdine Tennis is a second home for foreign players, as even the coaches are from other countries. The family dynamic between the women’s and men’s programs has made it a home for those who come to America for the first time.
“When you know you have an 18-year-old guy coming in and living on the other side of the world, it’s tough,” Halldin said. “Everyone can relate to that, and the older guys can help.”
In her career, Grace Chillingworth, senior Women’s Volleyball outside hitter, has played in 300 sets and 83 matches and has produced a total of 1389 kills, 76 aces, 753 digs and 171 blocks, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
However, like every Wave, Chilingworth said she is holding onto something more meaningful after her time at Pepperdine.
“Just building relationships with my friends and my coaches,” Chillingworth said. “I think those are the memories that will hold with me forever, more than the wins and the losses in volleyball.”
A relationship she has curated for all four years is with her best friend, senior libero Trinity Stanger.
“Having someone that you can always turn to and count on, in the rough times and the happy times,” Chillingworth said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Read, Martin and Halldin are watching the sun set on their collegiate athletic careers. However, Chillingworth has just signed up with the Terville Florange Olympique Club in France for the next year and hopes to continue to play professional volleyball in Europe or the U.S. in the coming years.
Building the Pepperdine Culture: Passing the Torch
Pepperdine culture is just different, all sources said.
Accolades pepper the walls of Firestone Fieldhouse. Every locker room is within shouting distance from the other, and the coaching offices are almost all on the same floor.
Relationships do not just build friendships; they also create a culture where teams fight for the teammate next to them. Read was recruited into an already rich program tradition, with Men’s Volleyball winning five NCAA Championships (’78, ’85, ’86, ’92 and ’05), according to Pepperdine Athletics.
During his freshman year, Read became one slice of that history when the team won the 2022 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Tournament, a feat he hopes the team can repeat in his final season, he said. To the younger players in the program or coming in, Read offers a key piece of advice: fully lean into the Pepperdine experience.
“Let the program impact you as a man like it did to me,” Read said. “I’ve grown so much since my time being here, and I think I’m just so fortunate. Actively do what they tell you and listen to their advice that they give you because there’s so many volleyball advices that also apply pivotally to life.”
Not just on the courts but also in the water, Pepperdine’s strong culture led to strong team performances.
“We’ve been able to move up conferences and then also win both in our previous conference and our new conference, MPSF,” Martin said. “Seeing how we’ve been able to set goals each year and actually attain them has been really cool.”
What made Pepperdine Swim unique, Martin said, was the camaraderie. When playing for a club or high school team, it felt like she was competing against her own teammates, but at Pepperdine, she was competing with her teammates.
“You’ll be in your classes, and like no one knows how early you woke up that morning or how you would miss the entire weekend for a meet,” Martin said. “Having that camaraderie that you’re able to have with your teammates who are also sharing this unique experience that no one else really understands is so important.”
In her final year as a Wave, Martin and Swim and Dive were crowned champions of the MPSF Championships with a first-place finish Feb. 22, securing the conference for the third time in four years, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
As a departing team captain, Martin’s best piece of advice to the freshmen starting their college journeys is simple: you are only going to get out of the experience as much as you put into it.
“If you put in your heart, your soul, your mind, like you are gonna get out of it what you want to and what’s gonna serve the team and you,” Martin said. “You’re gonna make the most out of this, this privileged position that you are in.”
Chillingworth has been one backbone of Pepperdine Volleyball with her own statistics and culture that has built the program into what it is today. This work helped create the 2023 WCC Championship winning year when Chillingworth said she played with her 2023 seniors one last time.
“I feel like I wouldn’t be where I was without them and learning from them,” Chillingworth said. “I think we’ve just done a good job of passing down that culture.”
Her dedication led to a 2023 WCC Player of the Year award and placed her as an AVCA All-American honorable mention, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
“It’s a huge honor,” Chillingworth said. “I wouldn’t have gotten it without my teammates and my coaches because it’s not just me getting the award.”
In her final season, Chillingworth had the unique experience of continuing to grow the culture on a team of 10 newcomers, including freshmen and transfers. She and Stanger tried to keep the Pepperdine legacy moving forward by passing the baton down to the next generation.
“I think you can see how much they want to win and how much they want to grow,” Chillingworth said.
Waves Final Thanks
Read, Chillingworth and Halldin all thanked their head coaches, Jonathan Winder, Scott Wong and Adam Schaechterle, for their personal growth and development within the courts and water.
But beyond just athletics, they thanked them for developing them as people.
To Read, Winder showcased what it means to be a dedicated family man and valued community member, as the team serves the community every fall, he said.
“A lot of the lessons he teaches us apply to volleyball, but a lot of what he tells us is applicable to life,” Read said. “I think that’s really cool to have a coach kind of pour into you as a man in addition to wanting us to be as successful as we can be on the volleyball court.”
Halldin said if it was not for Schaechterle, he would not be where he is today.
“It’s just been pretty cool to be surrounded by someone who’s so driven, someone who wants you to do so well in all aspects of life, someone who sets the culture,” Halldin said.
And for Chillingworth, her extended relationship with Wong when she was a 14-year-old recruit paved the way for her successful Pepperdine career, she said.
“I think something that stood out to me about him the most was that he cared about us as people before players,” Chillingworth said. “Whenever I would call him for a recruiting call, it would be about life.”
Martin thanked more than just her head coach Ellie Monobe, she thanked the entire Pepperdine community for all the love they poured into her experience.
“We’ve been able to go on travel team trips to Hawaii and get lots of cool merch, like just little things throughout the way that make this team just even more than I could have ever even imagined being at any other school,” Martin said. “I’m excited to see where it [the program] goes in the future, and I feel more proud than I could have ever imagined leaving. I can’t wait to tell people, ‘I was an athlete at Pepperdine.’”
Now, as time quickly passes and the ends of their Pepperdine journeys are approaching, all sources confidently said they were grateful, happy and proud to have been a Pepperdine Wave. But more importantly, for those whose athletic journey is coming to a close, they said they can accept that it’s over.
“Looking back, now [that] the sun is setting on my career here, I just get to look back on all the cool things that we’ve done and been a part of, and it puts it into perspective,” Read said. “I would not have done it any differently; I’ve loved my time here. I will never get to put on a jersey and compete at the level that I’ve been playing at for the last four years, [but] I’ve been grateful to be a part of it.”
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Contact Justin Rodriguez via email: justin.rodriguez@pepperdine.edu
Contact Megan Harkey via email: megan.harkey@pepperdine.edu
