Talk about a marriage made in heaven. Pepperdine University Director of Athletics Steve Potts announced last week that women’s sand volleyball will become the school’s 15th intercollegiate sport. With a campus that resides in beautiful Malibu and the beaches only a few miles away, school officials say this is the perfect sport to add to an athletic department steeped in volleyball tradition.
“We are excited to add women’s sand volleyball to the Pepperdine athletic program and believe it will prove to be a popular sport for our community,” Potts said. “Volleyball has a great tradition here and we are committed to building a championship women’s sand volleyball program.”
Nina Matthies, the current coach of the Waves’ indoor women’s volleyball team, will also coach the new sport come spring.
Considered by many as one of the greatest beach volleyball players ever, Matthies recorded 43 career beach titles during her career while reaching the medals podium 93 times in 139 career appearances before retiring in 1992. Her accomplishments on the beach as a player and on the court as a head coach (career record of 530-313) earned Matthies her induction into both the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association Hall of Fame and the Manhattan Beach Volleyball Walk of Fame.
She is thrilled that the NCAA added sand volleyball in 2010 to its list of women’s sports, with Pepperdine being one of the first schools to announce its decision to play. Other universities will be announced in the near future.
“When the ball got rolling for sand volleyball becoming an NCAA sport, I wanted in,” said Matthies, who begins her 29th season as head coach of the Waves this September. “Where we are is such a great spot for sand volleyball. We’re one of the few schools that can truly say we’re right at the beach already. Pepperdine and sand volleyball are like two peas in a pod, it’s such a great fit.”
Matthies began laying the groundwork for this moment several years ago, entering Pepperdine into the USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate Championship in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Waves won the team title last spring as well as in 2009.
“I’m ecstatic! Pepperdine is well suited to play sand volleyball,” Matthies added. “It fits in well with what we are already doing with the indoor team, and it fits within the culture of Pepperdine. It’s exciting to be a part of this from the very beginning, and to be involved in the start of the new tradition here at this school.”
Matthies expects to have a 12-person roster with tryouts to be held in January. It is anticipated that 12 to 14 members of the indoor team will comprise the roster. While indoor volleyball features teams competing with six players versus six players on a hard court, sand volleyball is only two versus two.
Pepperdine will host matches at the local beaches and possibly on campus in the future.
“It is my goal that the indoor and sand teams remain an integrated group, and that as coaches, we are able to maintain a balanced environment for our student-athletes,” Matthies said.
Joining Matthies on staff will be one of her indoor assistant coaches, Marcio Sicoli, a popular coach among the beach circuit. He is the current coach for Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, the two-time defending Olympic gold medal champions. Sicoli spent much of this summer coaching the No. 1-ranked duo in the world as they prepare for the London Olympics in 2012.
Caitlin Racich, a junior from Santa Barbara, is the first recipient of a sand volleyball scholarship at Pepperdine. She chose to forego playing indoor this season to focus solely on sand volleyball.
“I’m so excited. I feel so lucky to have this awesome opportunity to play beach for Pepperdine,” Racich said. “And the fact that I can go down to the beach and do what I love. I’m extremely passionate about beach volleyball and always have been.
“Nina [Matthies] has had such a big impact in the beach volleyball world. She knows so much about the sport that I’m just so happy that she’s my coach along with Marcio [Sicoli]. It will be great and I’m excited for the season,” Racich said.
Racich joined up with teammate Kim Hill to win the 2011 USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate Challenge in Hermosa Beach. They defeated fellow Waves Emily Cook and Stevi Robinson in the finals. Twenty-seven teams battled it out, with all four Pepperdine teams advancing to the championship gold division.
The season begins in March, with a schedule to be announced at a future date.