The top-ranked collegiate sand volleyball team in the country is getting ready to defend its crown at Zuma Beach this spring.
The defending American Volleyball Coaches Association Championship Pepperdine Waves sand volleyball team is entering the 2015 season ranked No. 1 in the DiG Magazine Collegiate Sand Volleyball Preseason Poll. The squad also enters this season having won two national championships the last three years.
During a Monday morning practice, Waves head coach Nina Matthies said her team has no plans on faltering this year.
“Our expectations over the last four years have been to win a national championship,” she said. “My expectations are to play well again and hopefully we will be in a position to vie for a national championship again this year.”
Waves redshirt senior Emily Cook from Huntington Beach said entering the season as defending champs and the No. 1-ranking makes the team play harder.
“We have that target on us,” she said.
Eleven members of the 2014 championship squad return to the sand this year for the Waves, including their quartet of AVCA All-Americans: junior Becca Strehlow, senior Lara Dykstra, and redshirt seniors Kelley Larsen and Kellie Woolever.
Matthies said the return of her All-Americans and players such as Cook, sophomore Delaney Knudsen, Strehlow, junior Taylor Racich, freshman Corinne Quiggle and junior Sophie Asprey, who have trained all year long due to USA Volleyball activities, are key for the Waves.
“I have a solid base of kids that have been with me for four years, so we are pretty experienced,” she said. “We have a bunch of competitive kids that are used to working hard to win. Losing really isn’t an option. I think we hate losing more than we like winning, so there is no complacency out here. We train really hard.”
In the three seasons of college sand volleyball history, Pepperdine has become the sport’s top school. The Waves all-time record is 52-2. Their last loss was to USC last March. After that contest, the Waves won 11 games in a row including the 2014 championship over Florida State University, which is ranked second in the DiG Magazine Poll.
After continuing a little over a month of preseason practice, Pepperdine will seek to continue stacking victories in the March 6-7 Hawaii Tournament in Honolulu and face Loyola Marymount on the first day of the event.
Pepperdine’s home opener is March 11 against Florida State and Texas Christian University. After that, the Waves play in the three-day USAV Beach Collegiate Challenge in Chula Vista, Calif.
The Waves’ top spot in the polls is quite significant. After being considered an “emerging” sport in years past by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, sand volleyball is now a full-fledged sport in the NCAA and hosts its first championship in 2016.
The Waves are the first-ever No. 1-rated team in sand volleyball. The sport was upgraded in status last October.
Redshirt seniors Cook and Woolever said this season they expect the road to a title to be a bit more challenging than in seasons past due to increasing exposure sand volleyball is getting and the increase in opponents’ talent levels.
“A lot of teams have gotten better, so there will be no easy win,” said Woolever. “Every school is going to be way better.”
“This is first year where one through five everyone will have pretty solid teams,” said Cook.
Along with playing second-ranked FSU, the Waves also play USC, Long Beach State and Florida International, all ranked in the top 10. Long Beach defeated Pepperdine in the 2013 championship, a year after the Waves won the crown in 2012.
Matthies said the Waves will be challenged this season, but she is expecting her team and coaches to strive for another title.
“I am very spoiled and really fortunate and lucky to have them all here,” she said.
Cook and Woolever encourage sports fan to come and see them play this season.
“It’s a fun day,” she said. “It’s an all-day event.”
