MALIBU, Calif. – Three competitors from Pepperdine men's and women's tennis opened the fourth-annual Oracle/ITA Masters on Thursday at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.  #41 Evgeniya Levashova and Adrijana Lekaj donned the blue and orange for the women, while Adrian Oetzbach represented Pepperdine on the men's side.
 
Levashova and Lekaj each came out strong in singles and won in straight sets, while Oetzbach was felled after a valiant effort.  The women will compete in the round of 16 tomorrow morning.
 
Levashova and Oetzbach paired up for mixed doubles early in the morning, winning their first match of the tournament.  At the same time, Lekaj paired with UC Santa Barbara's Nicolas Moreno de Alboran, and won their match swiftly.  After the completion of singles matches, both doubles partnerships once again defeated opponents in the round of 16 and each pair will compete in the mixed doubles quarterfinal tomorrow at 10 a.m.
 
RESULTS
Singles
32: #41 Evgeniya Levashova (PEPP) def. Miruna Vasilescu (Akron) – 6-2, 6-1
32: Adrijana Lekaj (PEPP) def. #36 Fatima Bizhukova (Wichita State) – 6-3, 7-5
32: #33 Johannes Schretter (Baylor) def. Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP) – 6-2, 6-4
 
Mixed Doubles
32: Evgeniya Levashova/Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP/PEPP) def. Bianca Mok/Igor Kolaric (Denver/Illinois State) – 7-6 (4)
32: Adrijana Lekaj/Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (PEPP/UCSB) def. Marianna Petrei/Tim Handel (Idaho/NAU) – 6-2
16: Evgeniya Levashova/Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP/PEPP) vs. Laurens Verboven/Elysia Bolton (USC/UCLA) – 6-4
16: Adrijana Lekaj/Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (PEPP/UCSB) vs. Mitch Harper/Estela Perez-Somarriba (Virginia Tech/Miami) – 6-3
 
TOMORROW -
Singles
16: #41 Evgeniya Levashova (PEPP) vs. Lisa Marie Rioux (OKSU) – not before 11 a.m.
16: Adrijana Lekaj (PEPP) vs. Fernanda Contreras (VANDY) – not before 11 a.m.
 
Consolation Singles
16: Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP) vs. #77 Jordan Benjamin (Dayton) – not before 3 p.m.
 
Mixed Doubles
QF: Evgeniya Levashova/Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP/PEPP) vs. Katie Fahey/Stefan Milicevic (MICH/MINN) – 10 a.m.
QF: Adrijana Lekaj/Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (PEPP/UCSB) vs. Veronika Miroshnichenko/August Holmgren (LMU/USD) – 10 a.m.
 
NOTABLES

• The opening round marked the first match Adrian Oetzbach has played while representing Pepperdine in a collegiate setting.
• Adrijana Lekaj's upset over #36 Bizhukova was her first win over a ranked opponent while at Pepperdine.
• This was all three Waves' first appearance in fall tournament action for the Waves this season.

 
PLAYS
In singles action, the women's side jumped out with some big victories to open the first round.  #41-ranked Levashova faced off with Miruna Vasilescu of Akron to begin and dominated the court towards a 6-2, 6-1 victory. 
 
Lekaj highlighted the singles showing for Pepperdine with her first win over a ranked opponent all-time.  She took down #36 Fatima Bizhukova of Wichita State with a 6-3 first round to kick off the match.  Although the opposition went ahead to open the second set, Lekaj battled back to force a 5-5 tied score.  She then took her advantage to a 7-5 second set win to upset her competitor and advance to the second round.
 
Oetzback put up a good presence against #330ranked Johannes Schretter of Baylor in his opening round matchup.  After falling 6-2 in the first set, he battled back to take the advantage in the second.  Schretter was able to close the gap, however, and took the second set win 6-4 to close the match. 
 
Two mixed doubles pairs featuring at least one Pepperdine player took the courts to open the fourth-annual Oracle/ITA Masters.  The all-Waves' pair of Evgeniya Levashova from the women's squad and Adrian Oetzbach from the men's side faced off with Bianca Mok from Denver and Igor Kolaric from Illinois State.  Each side went point-for-point en route to a 6-6 tie to force a tiebreak option.  The Waves jumped ahead early and eventually felled the opposition with a 7-4 tiebreak score to win their first match of the day.
 
Adijana Lekaj paired up with Nicolas Moreno de Alboran from UC Santa Barbara for some mixed doubles action as well.  The duo went head-to-head with Idaho's Marianna Petrei and Northern Arizona's Tim Handel, making quick work of their opponents with a 6-2 overall victory to advance to the second round.
 
In the second round of mixed doubles at the end of the day, both the pairs with Waves in them dominated the courts once again!  Levashova and Oetzbach duked it out with Laurens Verboven and Elysia Bolton from USC and UCLA respectively, eventually pulling ahead to secure a 6-4 win.
 
Lekaj and Moreno de Alboran then faced Mitch Harper/Estela Perez-Somarriba of Virginia Tech and Miami, besting the team with a 6-3 final result to reach the quarterfinals tomorrow.
 
ORACLE/ITA MASTERS
Invitations for the tournament go out to one man and one woman from each NCAA Division I conference to participate.  The singles champions earn automatic entry into the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, which will be held November 7-11, in Surprise, Ariz.
 
COVERAGE
In addition to extensive coverage of the Waves' competitors on @PeppTennis (men) and @WavesTennis (women) on Twitter, the ITA will also be providing information @ITATennis and with the hashtag #OracleITAMasters. 
 
ESPNU & LIVE STREAM
The matches played on courts one through six at Pepperdine will stream on PlaySight and the matches at the Malibu Racquet Club will be streamed with TempuZ.  The men's and women's singles finals on Sunday will be available to a national audience live via ESPN3 and on the ESPN App.  The matches will also air later on ESPNU on Monday, September 24 at 2 p.m. PT and Tuesday, September 25 at 2 p.m. PT. 
 
The women's singles final will kick off the live streaming coverage at 11:30 a.m. PT, with the men's singles championship slated for an approximate 2 p.m. PDT start.
 
NEXT UP
Next, the Pepperdine men will trek to Skillman, N.J. from September 29-October 8 to compete in the ITA All-American Championships.  The women will take part in the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships during the same time.  After hosting the prequalifying rounds in Malibu from September 29-October 1, before the Waves make the short trip to Pacific Palisades, Calif. for the qualifying round and main draw.
 
FOLLOW
Follow Pepperdine tennis on Facebook and Twitter @WavesTennis and @PeppTennis.  For all the recent schedules, updates and more, go to www.PepperdineWaves.com.