GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
Pepperdine’s women’s volleyball team took two out of three matches over the weekend at the Pepperdine Volleyball Classic at Firestone Fieldhouse. The tournament was a brush-up for the Waves as they get ready to take on two of the top five teams in the nation.
The Waves opened the tournament and their season by defeating University of Northern Iowa 3-1 Friday night. The team then came back Saturday morning and took a 2-0 lead against California State University, Northridge, but lost the game in five sets. Pepperdine finished the tournament Saturday night with a 3-0 sweep of Colorado State University.
The Waves’ 2-1 record in the tournament was enough to give them the tournament title, and sophomore middle blocker Lecca Roberts was named the tournament’s “Most Outstanding Player” for the 25th-ranked Waves.
Head Coach Nina Matthies said Roberts’ performance was expected. Roberts was never at full strength last season and Matthies said this could be a sign of things to come.
“We never really got to see her healthy last year,” Matthies said. “She was hurt all year, but we watched her get stronger and stronger all spring, and she’s just a very, very good volleyball player.”
Roberts and Pepperdine freshman outside hitter Julie Rubenstein were named to the all-tournament team, joining UNI’s Kristin Belzung and Stephanie German, CSU’s Dre Downs and CSUN’s Jenn Probert.
Pepperdine’s depth was one of the keys to the success over the weekend, Matthies said.
“I feel like all of us are so strong this year,” Matthies said. “I feel like we’re 12 deep, and that’s something I haven’t had. We still need to shore up a few holes in the bench, and I think that that’s going to help us down the line. Lecca and Sophia (Milo) are playing tremendously. Katy Daly, Julie (Rubenstein), Cassie (Chamberlain), all the freshmen are incredible. I think that if we can stay healthy as a group, we’re going to have a lot of options this year.”
Matthies was pleased with the performance of her young team.
“I was fairly pleased with the weekend as a whole,” Matthies said. “We’re young in some spots and we’ve got people playing in different positions than they’re used to, so I thought that we played pretty well.
“We started out well against Northern Iowa,” Matthies continued. “We played Northridge very well for two games but we didn’t finish that game out strong. But I’m happy with the way we bounced back and dismantled Colorado State, who was the second-best team in the tournament. I thought (we) did a tremendous job all weekend.”
Pepperdine travels to Lincoln, Neb. on Friday to take on the No.-1 team in the nation, the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Waves are competing in the Players Challenge, where they will also face No.-5 Penn State as well as west coast rival University of the Pacific.
Matthies said she thinks the past weekend’s tournament was a good tune-up for the Players Challenge.
“I think all the teams in the tourney were big teams,” Matthies said. “We didn’t play any cupcakes. There weren’t any teams in the 300s, they were all in the 20 to 50 range, and that’s pretty tremendous. We’re trying to build on that.”
Matthies said she understood the implications of scheduling two of the top five teams in the nation on one of the opening weekends of the season. But she says the challenge will be good for the Waves.
“I knew that this was going to be a tough weekend,” Matthies said. “But you never know how good you are unless you play the best. We’ve been working on a lot of footwork and quickness. We’re hitting over 11 foot blocks. We’re trying to get as good as we can get right now. Hopefully we can concentrate on playing ball control and maybe pick somebody off, that’s my hope for the tournament.”
09-08-2005
