GAME NOTES | TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

MALIBU, Calif. - The 9th-ranked Pepperdine women's tennis team will challenge opponents in the team's final two tournaments of the 2016-17 fall campaign this week. The Waves will send five players including two doubles pairs and three singles to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in Flushing, N.Y.; and will also send one single to the Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.

TOURNAMENT 4: Thursday-Sunday (November 3-6) at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.: USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.

TOURNAMENT 5: Thursday-Sunday (November 3-6) at the Jack Kramer Club in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.: Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational

COVERAGE: Recaps and results will be posted on www.PepperdineWaves.com daily. Any available score updates will be posted on Twitter at @WavesTennis. Tournament Central for national indoors can be found here: http://gowav.es/WrQHtC. The tournament central for Jack Kramer has not been released yet.

LOOKING AHEAD: These two tournaments signal the completion of the 2016-17 fall campaign. The Waves will return again in the spring season as the team hosts the ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on January 28 and 29. Along with the Waves, UNLV, NC State and Arkansas will all be in attendance.

EVENT INFO: As the only tournament on the ITA calendar to showcase elite players from every level of college tennis, the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships serves as the culmination of the fall season. The prestigious tournament is hosted once again by Columbia University. Gaining automatic entry into the tournament are champions from the USTA/ITA Division I Regional Championships held across the country in October, winners of the ITA Oracle Cup Super Bowl, and the consolation champions, doubles finalists and women's singles semifinalists from the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships. The Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational will take place from November 3-6 in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. The draws have not yet been released. Check @WavesTennis on Twitter and Facebook where the tournament central page will be made available when released.

THE FIELD: The USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships will have a 32-player singles draw and a 20-team doubles draw. Of the 32 singles competitors, 25 are nationally ranked in the Oracle/ITA preseason singles or freshman/newcomer rankings. The top-eight seeds in order include No. 3 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State), No. 2 (freshman/newcomer) Ena Shibahara (UCLA), No. 2 Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine), No. 1 Hayley Carter (North Carolina), No. 19 Astra Sharma (Vanderbilt), No. 1 (freshman/newcomer) Sara Daavettila (North Carolina), No. 5 Sinead Lohan (Miami) and No. 31 Jessie Aney (North Carolina). Other top-25 ranked players include No. 5 (freshman/newcomber) Ashley Lahey (Pepperdine), No. 6 Meible Chi (Duke), No. 7 Maegan Manasse (California), No. 9 Belinda Woolcock (Florida), No. 12 Sydney Campbell (Vanderbilt), No. 13 Andie Dikosavljevic (Auburn), No. 23 Aldila Sutjiadi (Kentucky) and No. 25 Alizee Michaud (Auburn).

In the doubles draw, nine of the 20-pair draw are nationally ranked in the Oracle/ITA preseason doubles rankings. The top four seeds in order include No. 14 Hayley Carter and Jessie Aney (North Carolina), No. 6 Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai and Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine), No. 3 Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr (California) and No. 19 Christine Maddox and Mayar Sherif Ahmed (Pepperdine). Other top-ranked pairs include No. 1 Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi (Kentucky), No. 4 Brienne Minor and Mira Ruder-Hook (Michigan), No. 12 Gabriela Knutson and Valeria Salazar (Syracuse), No. 19 Josie Kuhlman and Belinda Woolcock (Florida) and No. 34 Andie Daniell and Erin Routliffe (Alabama).

WAVES PRESENCE: The Waves will send five, including two doubles duos and three singles to New York for the tournament. In singles, No. 2 Luisa Stefani, No. 48 Mayar Sherif Ahmed and No. 5 in the freshman/newcomer preseason rankings Ashley Lahey will challenge opponents. In doubles, No. 6 Stefani and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai and No. 19 Ahmed and Christine Maddox will each compete.

Stefani earned a spot after reaching the finals in the Oracle/ITA Masters. She will open the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face Georgia's Eleni Christofi in the opening round at 7:30 a.m. (PT) on Thursday. Ahmed was an At-Large selection and will open the first round against Vanderbilt's No. 12-ranked Sydney Campbell at 7:30 a.m. (PT). Lahey earned her spot in the singles draw after taking home the ITA Southwest Regional Championship title. She will go head-to-head with Columbia's Rima Asatrian to open the tournament at 7:45 a.m. (PT).

Stefani will pair up with Runglerdkriangkrai earned a spot in the doubles draw after reaching the finals of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships this season. The duo will open the tournament as the No. 2 seed with a bye through the first round. The Waves will play the winner of Michigan's No. 4 pair Brienne Minor and Mira Ruder-Hook and Oklahoma States Vladica Babic and Carla Tur Mari in the afternoon session on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. (PT). Ahmed and Maddox are the No. 4 seed in the tournament and have also garnered a bye through the first round of competition. The pair will play at 1 p.m. (PT) on Thursday against the winner of Maryland's Kristina Hovsepyan and Alexandra Stanova and Duke's Ellyse Hamlin and Samantha Harris.

Dzina Milovanovic will also compete at the Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational for the team.

PRESEASON RANKINGS: Pepperdine had a wealthy presence in the Oracle/ITA Preseason singles, doubles and newcomer rankings this year. Sophomore Luisa Stefani will being the 2016-17 campaign, ranked #2 nationally in singles, while junior transfer Mayar Sherif Ahmed is ranked #48, junior Laura Gulbe is ranked #98 and sophomore Dzina Milovanovic ranks #123. Freshman Ashley Lahey begins her first weeks as a Wave ranked #5 in the Newcomer/Freshman rankings. In doubles, Stefani and senior partner Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai garnered a #6 national ranking, while senior Christine Maddox and first-year partner Ahmed are tied at the #19-spot.

2015-16 RECAP: The Waves had a banner season in 2016, reaching the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals for the first time in program history. The team produced a 24-3 overall record and a perfect 9-0 record in West Coast Conference play to earn Pepperdine the WCC Regular Season title. To begin postseason, Pepperdine went undefeated 2-0 as the #1 seed in the WCC Tournament to win a fourth-consecutive WCC Tournament crown and the 29th-straight berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Waves had five singles players and three doubles teams earn All-West Coast Conference honors, including Luisa Stefani, Matea Cutura and Laura Gulbe who earned first team singles honors and Dzina Milovanovic and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai who picked up second team nods. In doubles, Cutura and Christine Maddox and Stefani and Runglerdkriangkrai earned All-WCC first team honors, while Gulbe and Milovanovic earned second team accolades. Stefani finished the season ranked #3 nationally after reaching the NCAA Singles Championship semifinals, a feat that had not been accomplished since the 1989 season when 2015 Pepperdine Hall of Fame inductee Noelle Porter-Radnoti did so. She and Runglerdkriangkrai, as well as Cutura and Maddox, also reached the NCAA Doubles Championships round of 16. Stefani was named the ITA National Rookie of the Year, ITA Southwest Region Player to Watch and Rookie of the Year, WCC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. Head Coach Per Nilsson earned his second consecutive WCC Coach of the Year honor.

NILSSON: Per Nilsson returned to Pepperdine in June 2014 to succeed Gualberto Escudero as head coach of the women's tennis team. In his two years with the Waves, he has been named West Coast Conference Coach of the Year on back-to-back occasions, and in 2016 he led the Waves to a NCAA Championship quarterfinal appearance and a #9 final ranking in the ITA/Oracle rankings. He was an assistant coach for the Pepperdine men's tennis team from 2003-07 under head coach Adam Steinberg, where the Waves went 119-38 in those five seasons. Pepperdine won the NCAA team championship in 2006 with Nilsson on the sidelines. He was the head men's coach at Mississippi State, his alma mater, for seven seasons from 2008-2014. Nilsson compiled a record of 95-76 during his time at MSU.

#PURPOSE: The Pepperdine University Department of Athletics is committed to Christian values, to the academic well-being of all of our student-athletes and to competing for championships. We prepare students for success by challenging them to think differently - find your purpose, serve others and lead by example. The Competing with Purpose campaign highlights the commitment to our core values that student-athletes, coaches and staff dedicate themselves to daily. Competing with Purpose provides the foundation on which champions are built.

ABOUT PEPPERDINE: Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I Championships in five different men's sports — one of just 17 schools to have accomplished this feat — and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 25 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks No. 52 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.