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Pepperdine Athletics Honors Outstanding Student-Athletes

Student-athletes, coaches, and staff members gathered at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu Wednesday night, Apr. 13, to celebrate Pepperdine University’s fourth annual Student-Athlete Honors Dinner.

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

Director of athletics Steve Potts was the master of ceremonies, while Joel Lopata, a redshirt freshman on the men’s volleyball team, gave the invocation. Following a dinner catered by Wood Ranch, each head coach introduced their seniors. Finally, athletic chaplain Maurice Hilliard, director of academic services Jim Hamad, and women’s basketball coach Julie Rousseau presented the main honors.

The Wave of the Year (Men’s) award was given to Tyler Jaynes, a Granite Bay, California, native, who is a two-time winner of the award. Jaynes has been heavily involved in SAAC the past couple of years, especially in community service activities. He is a member of the Sideline, a weekly bible study and devotional designed for student-athletes, and a four-year participant in University Ministries, a college group of spiritual leaders at Malibu Presbyterian Church. He is a former “Mr. All-American” and has also participated in the Athletic Homecoming Group and Songfest. He earned All-MPSF honorable mention honors in 2010. He is a mathematics major.

Senior Martine de Gannes, a Diego Martin, Trinidad, native, won Co-Wave of the Year (Women’s) for her contributions on the women’s golf team. She is copresident of Pepperdine’s SAAC for the 2010-11 school year and is also the chair of the WCC’s SAAC board. She has been a leader in several volunteer and charity initiatives, including Adopt-A-Family, Soles for Souls shoe drive, Relay for Life, Dig Pink, and Mr. All-American. She earned NGCA All-American Scholar honors and WCC All-Academic first team honors in 2010 and is a three-time WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll “gold” honoree. She has represented Trinidad on numerous occasions, including at the 2010 World Amateur Team Championship. She is an advertising major.

Myriah Stockman, who hails from Sandy, Utah, received the Co-Wave of the Year (Women’s). Stockman is a junior on the women’s soccer team and undoubtedly the most vocal and supportive person among all Waves’ fans. As the leader of Riptide, the student spirit group, she can be found at all of Pepperdine’s venues cheering on all Waves athletic teams. She is a three-year starter on the soccer team. Stockman earned WCC All-Academic honorable mention honors in the fall and is a two-time WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipient. She is a sports medicine major.

The recipient of the Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Men’s) award was Matt Brown, who is a Bellevue, Washington, native and a redshirt sophomore on the men’s water polo team. Brown is a sports medicine major with a 3.85 GPA. He was named to the MPSF All-Academic team at the conclusion of the 2010 season, in which he appeared in 26 games for the Waves while netting 12 goals to go with eight steals and three assists. The center tied a personal high with three goals against Occidental, California, and Fresno Pacific, and was credited with two steals in Pepperdine’s 7-5 overtime win at UC Davis.

Jessell Owens received the Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Women’s) award. The Winnemucca, Nevada, native, is a senior on the women’s swim team and a sports medicine major with a 3.96 GPA. She is on pace to graduate in the top 10 of her class, and is a serious contender for valedictorian status. She is a PCSC All-Academic honoree and plans to attend medical school at Loyola-Chicago, Duke, or UC San Diego next fall. In the pool, Owens swam a season-best time in every event she entered at the 2011 PCSC Championships, including a personal-best 50 yard backstroke split of :33.48 to help lower her season-best 100 back stroke time to 1:07.33.

Sebastian Fanselow, a sophomore from Essen, Germany, received the honor of being chosen as Athlete of the Year (Men’s). The men’s tennis player concluded the 2011 dual campaign versus UCLA earlier this week with a singles victory to improve his overall record to 26-10 and led the Waves to an 18-5 team record. In the most recent issue of the Campbell/ITA Collegiate rankings, Fanselow was listed at #22 nationally in singles, but has reached as high as #14 this season. In doubles he is ranked #72 along with partner Jenson Turner due to a team-best 22-3 overall record (18-1 in duals). He was named MVP of the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in February after Pepperdine won the event as a squad. He defeated nationally ranked opponents on 10 occasions in singles, and was named WCC Singles Player of the Month in October. Last fall, Fanselow won the ITA Southwest Regional Championship. He is majoring in international business.

Earning the Athlete of the Year (Women’s) distinction was Kim Hill, a junior on the women’s volleyball team who hails from Portland, Oregon. Hill was named an honorable mention All-American in 2009 and again in 2010, and became the second Pepperdine women’s volleyball player to earn All-American distinction in more than one season. This past year, she led Pepperdine with 317 kills and a 3.27 kills per set average, and was also named to the AVCA All-Pacific Region and All-West Coast Conference first teams. Hill ranked fifth in the league in kills per set average and seventh in both service ace average (.30) and blocks (.97). In the Pepperdine record books, Hill has inked her name under several categories. Most notably, she stands in third with a career attack percentage of .342. She currently ranks 20th in total kills with 838 and will likely break into the top 10 by the end of her senior campaign. Off the court, the religion major made the WCC All-Academic first team in both 2009 and 2010.

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.