MALIBU, Calif. – Evgeniya Levashova of the Pepperdine women's tennis team became the fourth Wave in as many years to advance to the Oracle/ITA Masters semifinals with an upset win over #17-ranked Michaela Bayerlova of Washington State at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Friday.  The #41 sophomore put up a pair of 6-2 set wins to win her quarterfinal matchup and will play in the semifinal tomorrow at Malibu Racquet Club.
 
Adrijana Lekaj (women's tennis) and Adrian Oetzbach (men's tennis) also had singles matches on day two of the tournament.  Oetzbach won his first round in the consolation draw, while Lekaj was felled by a #7-ranked opponent.
 
All three Waves also competed in the mixed doubles tournament.  Lekaj and her UC Santa Barbara partner Nicolas Moreno de Alboran gritted out their first match win of the day with a 7-6 (4) victory to advance to the semifinals, but will not play in the match, due to Moreno de Alboran playing in an extra long singles match this evening.  
 
RESULTS
Singles
16: #41 Evgeniya Levashova (PEPP) def. Lisa Marie Rioux (OKSU) – 6-3, 6-1
16: Fernanda Contreras (VANDY) def. Adrijana Lekaj (PEPP) – 6-3, 6-1
QF: #41 Evgeniya Levashova (PEPP) def. #17 Michaela Bayerlova (WSU) – 6-2, 6-2
 
Consolation Singles
16: Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP) def. #77 Jordan Benjamin (Dayton) – 7-5, 6-3
 
Mixed Doubles
QF: Katie Fahey/Stefan Milicevic (MICH/MINN) def. Evgeniya Levashova/Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP/PEPP) – 6-3
QF: Adrijana Lekaj/Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (PEPP/UCSB) def. Veronika Miroshnichenko/August Holmgren (LMU/USD) – 7-6 (4)
SF: Adrijana Lekaj/Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (PEPP/UCSB) vs. Yuya Ito/ Lisa Marie Rioux (Texas/OKSU) – TONIGHT - TBD
 
TOMORROW 
Singles
SF: #41 Evgeniya Levashova (PEPP) vs. #18 Kate Fahey (MICH) – TOMORROW - TBD             
 
Consolation Singles
QF: Adrian Oetzbach (PEPP) vs. Andrew Ton (NAVY) – TOMORROW - TBD
 
PLAYS
Evgeniya Levashova dominated the court in her round of 16 match against Lisa Marie Rioux from Oklahoma State.  She put her down 6-3 in the first set, before rolling past her with a 6-3, 6-1 result in set two. 
 
In her quarterfinal against #17 Michaela Bayerlova of Washington State, Levashova came out strong intent on securing the upset and advancing to the Oracle/ITA Masters semifinal.  She did just that, as she first took the first set 6-2 to make a statement.  She used the energy into the second set and repeated her performance with another 6-2 victory to become the fourth Wave in as many years to reach the tournament's semifinal matchup.
 
Adrijana Lekaj put up a solid effort against #7 Fernanda Contreras of Vanderbilt in her round of 16 match.  After going toe-to-toe with the highly ranked player to a 3-3 tie in the first set, the opposition pulled away and finished with a 6-3 set win.  Lekaj then fell 6-1 in the second set to bow out of the singles tournament.
 
The Waves opened the day with doubles with two pairs still in the mix in the quarterfinal.  Levashova and Adrian Oetzbach once again paired up, this time to face Kate Fahey of Michigan and Stefan Milicevic of Minnesota.  The duo had a late comeback attempt, but was unable to overcome the opposition and fell 6-3 to bow out of the doubles tournament.
 
Lekaj also joined with Nicolas Moreno de Alboran of UC Santa Barbara again.  In the quarterfinals, the pair went head-to-head with West Coast Conference foe's Veronika Miroshnichenko of LMU and August Holmgren of USD.  After going point-for-point all the way to a 6-6 tie, the two pairs battled out a tiebreak point.  The Waves/Gaucho combo had the early edge in the tiebreak and used it to secure a 7-4 tiebreak win.
 
Oetzbach took on Dayton's #77-ranked Jordan Benjamin in his first round of consolation singles.  After pulling ahead in the first set, his opposition battled back to tie things up 5-5.  The Wave stayed resilient, however, and gritted out a 7-5 first set win to gain the advantage.  With the lead, came momentum in the second set and Oetzbach handled his opponent with a 6-3 final set victory to advance to the consolation 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.