Pepperdine Women’s Beach Volleyball started its 13th season with the Pepperdine Challenge on Feb. 24, at the Marie Canyon Courts.
After coming close to a conference title the past couple seasons, members of the team said, through their more developed roster and strong team chemistry, they are ready to bring back the WCC title to Pepperdine for the first time since 2018.
“We can do even better than last year,” junior Kate Clermont said. “As a team, we are really close, and so, I’m just excited to build each game and stick together and then showcase what we’ve been working on hard each practice.”
Roster additions and returners
The 2024 team includes five new additions — four freshmen and two transfers. The newcomers are freshman Grace Jackson, freshman Maya McNabey, freshman Lauren Cook, freshman Kaydon Meyers, redshirt sophomore Emma Bubelis and graduate Sarlota Svobodova.
Head coach Marco Sicoli said all newcomers are already impacting the team, but two that stick out are McNabey and Meyers.
“We have Kaydon — freshman defender that is absolutely on the verge of making the team and making an impact in high positions,” Sicoli said. “We have Maya — another newcomer that is probably making the lineup and impacting the team right away.”
Clermont, Svobodova and junior McKenna Thomas were named to the WCC preseason team, according to Pepperdine Athletics. The captains for the upcoming season are Thomas and graduate Aubrey Roberts, according to the team’s Instagram.
Thomas said this is her second year as captain, and she will continue to serve as a voice and support system for the team.
“I look at the position [captain] as a way for me to be a communication for my teammates and my coaches as well,” Thomas said. “[I] just try to be that extra support for them as well. I’m just really honored to have it.”
During the offseason, the team hired Chris Flood to be an assistant coach, according to Pepperdine Athletics. Flood was an assistant coach for Team Canada Indoor Volleyball in the 2021 Olympics and was a back-to-back national champion in indoor volleyball at Missouri Baptist, where he also received multiple all-conference first and second team awards.
“His [Flood’s} big job is individual player development,” Sicoli said. “And that’s what he’s been bringing to the team right away since the fall.”
Opening schedule
The Waves’ first matches of the season was a home doubleheader, where they beat Vanguard 5-0 but lost to Long Beach State 5-0 in the Pepperdine Challenge. The team is looking to use these matches as an opportunity to make a statement to start the season, Thomas said.
“Our expectations are very high,” Thomas said. “We want to establish that this is our field. This is our court, and we are here to play.”
Following the Pepperdine Challenge, the Waves’ second tournament — the Malibu Invite — will also be at home, where they will face Boise State, San Francisco and Arizona. While all matches are important, home matches mean slightly more to the team, Sicoli said.
“We want to connect with the community,” Sicoli said. “We want to connect with the student body. I want to connect with the community in Malibu.”
Later on in the season during the PCH Invite, Pepperdine will face Loyola Marymount for the first time March 24. In the previous season, the Waves faced LMU in the WCC Championship final but lost 3-0.
This is the fourth season in a row in which LMU won the WCC and the third consecutive season in which Pepperdine fell to LMU in the championship final, according to LMU Athletics. Multiple members of the team said losing to LMU has served as extra motivation for the season.
“That unfinished business is bringing the WCC title back to Malibu,” Sicoli said. “It has been too long that [it] is down at LMU.”
For Thomas, she said her and Clermont’s match didn’t get to finish, so the two of them are eager to have a rematch against the Lions.
“Her [Clermont] and I are definitely fired up that first time we play them to finish where we left off and keep taking care of business against them,” Thomas said.
Developing team culture
Multiple members of the team said they are continually looking to grow the team’s culture as it is vital to their on-the-court performance.
“If a team doesn’t have that chemistry or that bond, it’s gonna be really hard to support in those tough times when maybe we play a team and it’s just not going our way,” Thomas said.
One area Clermont said where the team chemistry shines through is when the team competes against each other in drills. The team uses these opportunities as a way to form bonds but also develop their game.
“We love to get every drill — know all the rules,” Clermont said. “We like to challenge each other. We’re really competitive, but we’re good at cheering for each other because, at the end of the day, we’re on the same team.”
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