Beach volleyball, men’s volleyball, men’s tennis, and swim and dive teams lead the way as 145 Waves from 12 sports land on the WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll
Pepperdine Waves student-athletes and sports teams garnered academic accolades in July.
The Waves beach volleyball and the men’s volleyball squads received American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Awards and the men’s tennis team and seven team members earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Awards. The swim and dive team earned College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) All-America Team honors. Additionally, 145 student-athletes from 12 programs were named to the West Coast Conference (WCC) Commissioner’s Honor Roll.
The Waves swim and dive squad earned CSCAA Scholar All-American Team honors for the 20th straight semester. The 35-member team had a combined 3.57 grade-point average in the spring semester. Twenty-three of them had 3.5 GPAs or higher.
These academic honors follow the Waves’ Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship win five months ago.
Pepperdine head coach Ellie Monobe is thrilled and proud of the Waves’ commitment to academics.
“Not only have they shown dominance in the pool, but continue to pursue excellence in the classroom,” she said.
To earn honors, CSCAA teams needed at least a 3.00 GPA.
The AVCA Team Academic Award celebrates teams that maintained a year-long 3.3 GPA or higher.
Pepperdine’s beach volleyball and men’s volleyball teams are among the 1,450 collegiate and high school programs nationwide to receive this year’s award, which sets a record for the most teams honored in the award’s history. The beach volleyball team has received the award for nine straight years, while the men’s volleyball team has earned the honor for two consecutive years.
The beach volleyball team had a 3.5 GPA with 12 of its 14 members named to the WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll for having at least a 3.0 GPA of 3.0.
Among 58 men’s volleyball programs honored, Pepperdine is one of just 38 to earn the distinction two years in a row. The team also seized a spot on the AVCA Team Academic Award Honor Roll, which includes squads that have the top 20% of team GPAs in the division. They were one of four NCAA Division I teams to receive that honor.
The Waves men’s tennis team had a 3.3 GPA, which earned them the ITA All-Academic Team award for the fourth consecutive year. Teams must have a 3.3 GPA or more for that honor.
Seven of the team’s members — Robin Boeckli, Linus Carlsson Halldin, Maxi Homberg, Chris Papa, Aleksa Pisaric, Lasse Poertner, and Hugh Winter — are ITA Scholar Athletes, a title that requires student-athletes to have a GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Student-athletes need at least a 3.0 GPA to make the WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll. Thirty-nine Waves had a 3.75 to 4.0 GPA (gold status), 35 had GPAs from 3.50 to 3.74, and 71 had 3.0 to 3.49 GPAs (bronze status).
The Waves student-athletes on the honor roll play sports including baseball, basketball, cross country and track, golf, soccer, tennis, water polo, and volleyball.