The Waves Sand Volleyball team continued the successful beginning of the season by winning against Long Beach yesterday. Pepperdine, represented by five duos, won the USC Tournament at the Annenberg Community Beach House in difficult weather conditions this past weekend.
“We had a fantastic weekend. We won the team event, which was most important,” Head Coach Nina Matthies said. “We were tremendous in the pair’s competition also. It was hailing, 40 mph wind with rain, it was a crazy weekend but we played really well. It was a good giveaway to start the weekend. It was unbelievable.”
The Waves managed to win three of the five flights and earned the programs’ first-ever team title Saturday, the first day of the tournament. All five pairs showed outstanding performance by defeating challenging opponents from USC, Florida State University and Long Beach State University.
In the first flight, a duo of Waves junior Caitlin Racich and freshman Summer Ross took over Caitlin Ledoux and Tara Roenicke of Long Beach losing in just the first set (19-21, 21-16, 15-11). Another win followed this victory, this time over Jese Pardon and Jekaterina Stepanova of Florida State University, when pair was leading with significant advantage in both sets (21-16, 21-14). No. 1 Waves team, Racich and Ross steped into Sunday’s single elimination pair’s championship with a perfect 6-0 record.
Junior Victoria Adelhelm and Sophomore Kellie Woolever stayed strong against their opponents from Long Beach State and Florida State by winning in all three games in the third flight. Sophomore Kelley Larsen and senior Stevi Robinson lost in two sets but won in the last one against USC’s Bateman and Hirschmann.
On Sunday, the team managed to win three out of five flights in a very undesirable conditions.
According to Matthies, weather conditions could not stand in the way of the team’s victory.
“We play in the rain and in the wind when we practice on the beach every day, so we are used to this environment. We are not going inside when it is a bad weather, because when something like that happen during the game, you are sort of prepared. We have spent a lot of time practicing fundamentals; the kids are very strong mentally and physically, so that’s how you prepare to the bad weather,” she said.
The weekend tournament helped the team in preparing for the game against Long Beach yesterday. The team effectively applied their past experience and successfuly won its first ever dual match (3-2). Especially successful was the pair Kelley Larsen and Stevi Robinson who defeated Libby Fontanilla and Alma Serna of LBSU (21-10, 21-10).
The team is looking forward future challenges as they play against Alabama-Birmingham, Mercer and the College of Charleston, SC, this weekend.
