Waves Living Up to Coach’s Hype

Coach Nina Matthies apparently wasn’t far from the truth a few weeks ago when she joked about the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team being “awesome.”

The unranked Waves, which open action today in the Colorado State tournament, are off to a 4-0 start, including impressive victories over 13th-ranked Pacific and No. 21 Brigham Young.

In a tournament last week in Provo, Utah, outside hitter Nicole Sanderson, junior setter Becci Roehl and sophomore middle blocker Anna Witkowski made the all-tournament team. Sanderson, who had 48 kills, 30 digs and seven blocks in two matches, was the most valuable player.

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Running pipeline: Omar Vega has joined two other Nordhoff High graduates on the Cal State Northridge men’s cross country team.

Vega, who placed fifth in the 1995 State Division III cross-country championships, is academically ineligible to compete this season. Next year he is expected to join former Nordhoff teammates Javier Ramirez and Will Bernaldo with the Matadors.

Ramirez, a sophomore, and Bernaldo, a freshman, combined for five Southern Section Division III titles in cross-country and track at Nordhoff.

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Ratings game: Northridge’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams are picked to finish sixth in the eight-team Big Sky Conference in a preseason poll of the league’s coaches. The Northern Arizona men and Weber State women are the favorites.