Pepperdine players selected for all-conference teams this summer are taking to their home turf as the 2019 season begins.
A pair of preseason All-West Coast Conference players helped the Pepperdine Waves women’s soccer team win one of its first two regular season games, and a quartet of preseason all-conference players on the Waves women’s volleyball team will take to the court for the first time on Friday.
Junior forward Joelle Anderson had one assist and one shot on goal in the soccer team’s 3-0 victory over UC Riverside on Aug. 22, and three days later had one shot on goal in the squad’s 0-0 double overtime draw with Texas A&M. Sophomore defender Isabel Nelson played the entirety of the two matchups—90 minutes against UC Riverside and 110 minutes against Texas A&M.
Both players were named to the All-WCC Preseason Team with nine other players from the 10-team conference days before Pepperdine’s season kicked off. Anderson, named to the conference’s second team at the end of her freshman and junior seasons, entered the Waves’ 2019 campaign with career totals of 14 goals and nine assists. The five goals she scored in 2018 led Pepperdine. Nelson, the lone sophomore tapped for the preseason honor, was the WCC Freshman of the Year a season ago and was named to Top Drawer Soccer’s Best XI second team.Â
Sophomore Rachel Ahrens, junior Shannon Scully and seniors Hannah Frohling and Tarah Wylie were named to the All-WCC’s Preseason Team on the volleyball court.Â
Frohling, an outside hitter, was a first team all-conference selection in 2018. She had 343 kills last season, including 16 kills with 10 digs in the Waves first round NCAA Championships first-round contest against Northern Iowa. Wylie, a middle blocker, earned honorable mention status after posting 224 kills and 95 blocks last season. The outside hitter Scully also earned honorable mention status last season. She averaged a team-high 3.31 kills per set a season ago, totaling 364 kills. Ahrens, an outside hitter and member of the All-Freshman team last season, totaled 225 kills in 2018.Â
Heading into their season-opening match against Tulsa in the North Texas Challenge in Denton, Texas, Pepperdine had the most players named to the All-WCC Preseason Team. The Waves will also face North Texas on Friday and Illinois State on Saturday in the Lone Star State volleyball showcase.Â
Pepperdine’s women’s soccer team will host Illinois on Friday at 3 p.m. and Vanderbilt on Sunday at 1 p.m.Â
Junior forward Brie Welch and freshman midfielder Shelby Little recorded goals in the Waves’ season-opening win over UC Riverside. Pepperdine’s first goal of the contest came courtesy of a UC Riverside defender accidently hitting the ball past her own goalkeeper.
