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Pepperdine Honors Student Athletes, Waves of the Year

While the spring sports seasons wind down, a few hundred student-athletes, coaches, and staff members celebrated Pepperdine University’s second annual Student-Athlete Honors Dinner in in Firestone Fieldhouse on the Malibu campus.

Awards were given for the Athlete of the Year, the Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Wave of the Year to both male and female recipients. The Wave of the Year honors student-athletes for outstanding contributions in spirit and service to the athletics program.

Director of Athletics John Watson was the lead speaker, while Colin Rooney, a junior on the baseball team, gave the invocation and Julie Rubenstein, a senior on the women's volleyball squad, spoke on the life of a student-athlete. The head coaches of the award-winners introduced their student-athletes, before the big awards were announced.

The winners of the Wave of the Year award went to seniors Omar Altmann and Kayla Stolte. Altmann, who hails from Cairo, Egypt, is a senior captain of the men's tennis team, which is currently ranked No. 17 in the nation. He is a supporter of all of Pepperdine's teams and has been greatly involved with the tennis team's community service projects, the Safe Passage program, and numerous youth tennis clinics for underprivileged children. He served as a Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representative for two years. As a freshman, Altmann was a key member of Pepperdine's 2006 national championship team, and he helped the Waves win their fourth WCC title in his four years earlier today. He has earned three All-WCC honors in doubles and two in singles, with more to come. He has been nationally ranked in both singles and doubles this season. Altmann is an international business major.

Stolte is a four-year member of the women's soccer squad and three-year starter at goalkeeper. Also a spirited supporter at Pepperdine events, Stolte is a two-year member of the SAAC and this year served as the community service chair. She finished her soccer career by being named to the All-WCC honorable mention squad and is among the school's all-time leaders in goals-against average, saves and shutouts. Thanks to her work in the classroom, she earned CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District second team accolades and WCC All-Academic first team honors as a senior. Stolte is a mathematics major.

Click here for a full list of winners from this year's awards dinner, including Athlete of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.