11 Waves women’s soccer players earned West Coast Conference academic recognition
Thirty-two Pepperdine Waves fall season student-athletes have been recognized for their prowess off the field of competition and in the classroom within the last two months.
Eleven members of the Waves’ men’s and women’s cross country team were named to West Coast Conference All-Academic teams on Dec. 15. Two members of the Pepperdine men’s water polo squad received academic recognition from the conference on Dec. 14. Six Pepperdine women’s volleyball players received academic acclaim from the WCC on the same day. Two of the volleyballers received College Sports Communications (CSC) Academic All-District honors.
On Dec. 7, 11 Waves women’s soccer players earned WCC academic recognition. Four of the teammates garnered CSC Academic classroom honors also.
Student-athletes must have at least a 3.20 grade point average, be in their second year at their school, and be meaningful contributors to the team to be considered for WCC recognition.
Seven men’s team cross country runners — graduate student Will Bullock, seniors Johnathan Flint and Nate Lannen, and sophomores Joshua Bergers, Spencer Mueller, Kai Newman, and Patrick Thomas — earned WCC honorable mention honors. Flint and Lannen are two-time WCC academic winners.
Women’s team cross country athletes including senior Elle Sharder, sophomore Abby Winter, and juniors Megan LaCamera and Caroline Fleenor received WCC honorable mention.
Men’s water polo players Sandor Gal, a sophomore, and Nico Tierney, a senior, were WCC All-Academic honorable mentions. Both were ACWPC All-Academic honorees last season. Tierney was a GCC All-Academic selectee two years ago.
Women’s volleyball players and graduate students Isabel Zelaya and Riley Patterson were named to the WCC All-Academic first team. Their teammates — senior Emma Ammerman, junior Grace Chillingworth, and sophomores Kenadie Patterson and Vanessa Polk —were honorable mention.
Zelaya and Polk earned CSC Academic All-District first team acclaim on Dec. 12. To gain that recognition, student-athletes needed to have a minimum 3.5 GPA and played in 90 percent or started 66 percent of their team’s games this season. They had to be at least a sophomore athletically and academically.
Polk and Zelaya will be on the ballot for Academic All-American honors. The results will be released on Jan. 9.
Zelaya is now a three-time WCC All-Academic first teamer and a two-time CSC Academic All-District first teamer. She is a three-time WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll honoree with two gold honors and one silver honor.
Patterson also won WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll status with a silver honor.
Women’s soccer players Skylar Enge and Tori Waldeck, both seniors, were named to the WCC All-Academic first team. Nine of their teammates garnered honorable mention, including redshirt freshmen Cadee Borg and Kyra Murphy, juniors Caroline Coleman and Kelsey Adams, seniors Julianna Duckett and CC Maloof, and sophomores Karina Gonzalez, Tatum Wynalda, and Erin Zeile.
Enge, Maloof, Murphy, and Waldeck were named to the CSC Academic All-District first team.
Enge received the honor in 2022 and is three-time WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll “gold” recipient and Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete. Maloof is also a three-time WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roller with one bronze and two silver honors. She is also a three-time Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete.
Last season, Murphy was a Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete and WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll “gold” recipient. Waldeck is a three-time Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete and is now a three-time WCC All-Academic awardee. She also earned three WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll honors with two silvers and one bronze.