Pepperdine’s Ammerman, steeped in family volleyball tradition, finally got to Slovenia and more

Emma Ammerman was on her first trip to Europe.

Not surprising was that it was for volleyball.

And certainly not surprising that it would start in Maribor, Slovenia.

Ammerman is a 6-foot-3 junior right side at Pepperdine and happens to be the sixth of eight kids from her volleyball-intensive family in Parker, Colorado.

Every one of her five older siblings played volleyball, four professionally. Her dad, Brett, played basketball and club volleyball at Purdue and her mom, Maria, played volleyball at Alaska-Anchorage.

Last month, Ammerman got to play in the Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia. First, though, her team met up in Maribor. Slovenia, just north of Croatia.

Now would be a good time to go over the Ammerman family roster.

Ryan played at UC Irvine, which won the 2007 and 2009 NCAA titles, then played pro, was on the national team, and just joined the Anteaters men’s program as an assistant.

Sarah was an All-American at Texas A&M and then had a longtime pro career, the bulk of it in Maribor.

Dalton was a standout at Long Beach State and also played pro.

Luke, Dalton’s twin, played at Orange Coast Community College.

Hannah Ammerman is a 6-3 senior outside/right side at Division II Colorado-Colorado Springs. 

Then there’s Emma, followed by brother Sebastian, who has Down’s syndrome and proudly just graduated high school, and 15-year-old Mary. 

Mary has been coached by Ryan (remember him? He’s the oldest), who also coached Emma in club at Front Range.

So there Emma was in July, seeing Slovenia for the first time. The sports administration major really enjoyed the practice days and getting to explore Maribor.

“My family is so big and we were so little (when Sarah played there). I remember being in like the fourth grade and it was like, ‘My sister lives in Slovenia.’ But my parents never could come over to see them. It was so fun to be there.”

When she played in Slovenia, Sarah’s agent was Cory Solomon, one of the founders of Bring It Promotions, which not only puts on the annual Global Challenge, but runs tours of Europe for college teams. 

After Sarah’s volleyball career ended, she stayed and led tours for Bring It and that’s where the plot thickens. 

In 2017, she was leading a summer tour in Slovenia for BIP. One week Sarah had, interestingly, Pepperdine. The next week she was the host for Washington and met coach Keegan Cook. They married in 2020 and this past December had a baby boy, Oliver….