Maggie Mendelson’s path from her hometown of North Ogden, Utah, to Malibu on the edge of the Pacific Ocean almost feels like a piece of fiction. She has penned a winning chapter each step along the way.
 
Mendelson’s journey began with two years at the University of Nebraska, where she played a volleyball match before the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event — any sport, anywhere in the world. She then transferred to Penn State and won a volleyball national championship while earning a degree in environmental science as an Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
 
Now, able to devote herself exclusively to basketball, Mendelson is the starting center for Pepperdine and immersed in the school’s highly rated master's law program in conflict management.
 
“Way harder than anything I’ve experienced, for sure,” she said of her classroom pursuit. But she has no complaints. “I love it. It’s such a cool experience. The players are awesome. The coaches are awesome. You can’t beat the campus. It’s perfect.”
 
Over her first three games, the 6-foot-5 Mendelson is averaging 11.3 points, 14.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots. She debuted with a 17-point, 17-rebound performance in a victory over Portland State and has secured double-digit rebounds in every game.
 
Coach Katie Faulkner, whose team takes a 2-1 record into a Friday night home game against Princeton, believes Mendelson is just getting started. 
 
“One thing I know about Maggie is she’s a professional so she’s a constant learner of the game. She’s a sponge and she wants to do her part for this team,” Faulkner said. “She just needs more reps and reminders of how to play basketball again. 
 
“I think she’s done a phenomenal job in all the different areas. How defenses react to her, it’s been different every game. Some people don’t even know about her. Then she goes for 17 and 17 and people overreact and they triple-team her. She’s had different looks in three games.”
 
Having exhausted her college volleyball eligibility, Mendelson decided Pepperdine was the ideal place to pursue her postgraduate degree while playing one more season of hoops. She already was familiar with Faulkner, who had recruited her out of high school as an assistant coach at Washington.
 
“I’m definitely in a role I’ve never been in before in basketball,” said Mendelson, who played limited minutes off the bench for Penn State last season after the volleyball season. “I feel like I’m getting my feet wet a little bit. I’ve been able to grab some rebounds — that’s my goal every time I go out there, to rebound and play defense. The offense will come.”
 
Junior guard Elli Guiney is the Waves’ pacesetter on offense so far, averaging 18.7 points after scoring a career-high 32, including 7-for-10 accuracy from 3-point range, in a win over Cal State Dominguez Hills on Tuesday. “Elli is a great leader and a great shooter,” Mendelson said. “She’s built different.”
 
But Mendelson can elevate the Waves in a couple significant ways, starting with her presence in the paint. In her two seasons with the Nittany Lions’ volleyball team, she racked up 479 kills, 237 blocks, and 72 digs in 68 matches. Those skills lend themselves perfectly to defense and rebounding in basketball.
 
“You’re not a volleyball national champion if you’re not super-athletic and fundamental,” Faulkner said. “When you’re athletic and you have great timing and hands, and obviously good footwork, I knew she’d love defense.”
 
Then there’s Mendelson’s pedigree as a high achiever. When Faulkner says Mendelson trains like a pro, that’s literally the case. She played earlier this year for the Atlanta Vibe of Major League Volleyball. Add it all up and she is an example for her new teammates.
 
“She went and played pro volleyball at age 20,” Faulkner said. “Her ability to take care of her body, train right, prepare right, how she communicates. She’s the first to demand more from herself, but because of that she can demand more out of other people, too. 
 
“She loves this team and they love her. Everyone knows this is coming from a place of love and respect.”
 
Mendelson began her college career on a path to be a two-sport athlete. As a teenager, she was good enough to land spots on U.S. national age-group teams in both sports. Doing so in college didn’t last beyond her freshman year. 
 
“I wanted to play both sports just because I grew up doing both. Nobody ever told me I couldn’t do both,” she said. “When I got there, everybody tried to make it work. But it is almost impossible trying to balance both sports, and play the way you want to in both sports. 
 
“Physically, it demands completely different things and not being able to focus on one all year round is a pretty big disadvantage. I knew if I want to get good at one, I had to focus on it. I chose volleyball — I always thought I was better at volleyball than basketball.”
 
Faulkner calls Mendelson “an all-in girl,” and said that left no room for being average. “She wants to be great at everything she does.” 
 
Each of her first two college stops provided an experience she treasures. 
 
She was a sophomore middle blocker for the Cornhuskers in the fall of 2023 when the school scheduled “Volleyball Day in Nebraska,” with a game against Omaha at Memorial Stadium, home of the school’s football team.
 
“Going into it, we had no idea what was actually going to happen. They never told us how many tickets were sold,” Mendelson said. “So we walked out that day and we saw thousands of fans staring down at us on the court.”
 
The paid attendance of 92,003 set a record for the largest crowd ever to witness a women’s sporting event. It eclipsed the total of 91,648, set a year earlier in Barcelona, Spain, for a Champions League soccer match between FC Barcelona and Wolfsburg.
 
“Honestly, it was a surreal experience. We always saw Memorial packed on football game day, but to have them be there for us to watch a volleyball game was so special,” recalled Mendelson, who saw action in one set and had two kills. “Just doing something that has never happened before in women’s sports history was so awesome to be a part of.”
 
A year later, she became an NCAA champion with Penn State, a starter on a team that went 35-2 and beat Louisville 3-1 in the national title match. 
 
“Winning a national championship is just a feeling that all the hard work has finally paid off,” she said. “To end on a win on the biggest stage, it makes everything — all the hard times, all the late nights in the gym — feel so worth it.”
 
Now Mendelson is determined to create new memories with her Pepperdine team. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know exactly how good we can be. I think our ceiling is exactly what we put on ourselves,” she said. “We’ve got all the pieces. We’ve just got to put it together at the right time.”