MALIBU, Calif. – Coming off a pair of home wins against West Coast Conference opponents Gonzaga and Portland, the Waves head to #11 USC. After matching up against the Trojans, the Waves will travel to USD and BYU for more WCC action.
DUAL MATCH 18: #9 Pepperdine vs. #11 USC | 2 p.m. PT | Tuesday, April 9th at Marks Tennis Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif.
DUAL MATCH 19: #9 Pepperdine vs. #38 USD | 1 p.m. PT | Friday, April 12th at Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif.
DUAL MATCH 20: #9 Pepperdine vs. BYU | 11 a.m. PT | Saturday, April 13th at the Outdoor Tennis Courts in Provo, Utah.
LOOKING AHEAD: Next, Pepperdine will host San Francisco and Santa Clara on Friday, April 19th and Saturday, April 20th.
LAST TIME OUT: The Waves are currently 14-3 this dual season overall. Senior, #88 Adrijana Lekaj has composed the most singles wins for the Waves with 23, including holding a 10-5 output the dual season. Anastasia Iamachkine claims the next highest record with 21 wins this season including the most singles wins in the dual campaign going 11-1. Satsuki Takamura and Daria Kuczer each have six wins, respectively.
Throughout singles tournament and dual action combined, #45 Ashley Lahey currently has a 13-7 overall season record, going 7-3 in the dual campaign. #81 Jessica Failla has posted an 12-6 overall record and Dzina Milovanovic currently holds an 15-7 record on the season.
In doubles this season, the Waves have collected a 27-14 record for a .659 success rate. #24 Failla and Iamachkine have amassed a 13-7 overall record including going 7-1 against ranked opponents. The pair of Lahey and Kuczer are currently 6-1 in dual play and Milovanovic and Lekaj are 8-4.
OPPONENT NOTES: Pepperdine travels to USC first this week. The Waves have gone 16-43 all-time against the Trojans dating back to 1977. Most recently, the Waves have won the last four meetings since 2016.
The Trojans are currently 16-3 this dual season, with their only losses being to #5 Stanford, #19 California and Southern Methodist. The Trojans have four ranked singles players, #43 Slama Ewing, #87 Angela Kulikov, #122 Daniella Willson and #123 Ana Neffa. USC also boast two ranked doubles pairs #14 Angela Kulikov and Rianna Valdes and #85 Constance Branstine and Estella Jaeger.
After facing the Trojans, the Waves will travel to WCC opponents USD and BYU. All-time, the Waves have gone 57-5 against the Toreros dating back to 1977 and have been undefeated since 2013.
The Toreros are currently 14-2 this dual season and have recorded a 5-0 output in conference play. Their only losses have come by #11 USC and Oregon. USD has one ranked singles player, #58 Solymar Colling and one ranked doubles pair #54 Maria-Paula Torres and Colling.
The final match for the Waves this week will be against the BYU Cougars. All-time, the Waves are 13-8 against the Cougars dating back to 1978 and have been undefeated since 2004. The Cougars are currently 10-7 this dual season and 3-2 in conference play. BYU does not hold any ranked singles or doubles players.
LAST WEEK AGAINST UCLA, GONZAGA AND PORTLAND: Last week, the Waves traveled to UCLA before hosting Gonzaga and Portland.
In the thrilling match against UCLA, doubles pair Lahey and Kuczer upset #11-ranked Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart of UCLA. Lekaj and Milovanovic then clinched the doubles point by defeating #49-ranked Abi Altick and Alaina Miller. The Waves went on to win the match with singles wins from #88 Failla, Iamachkine, Kuczer, and Milovanovic clinching the match by upsetting #98 Altick.
The Waves then hosted Gonzaga and Portland. The first 4-0 sweep against the Bulldogs started with doubles wins from Lahey and Kuzer as well as Lekaj and Milovanovic. The match was then clinched with singles wins from #81 Failla, Milovanovic, and Iamachkine.
In the final match of the week the Waves had another clean sweep over the Portland Pilots. Leading off with doubles wins from Lahey and Kuczer and Lekaj and Milovanovic. The win was then secured with singles wins from Iamachkine, Takamura, and #88 Lekaj.
ORACLE/ITA RANKINGS: The Waves are ranked #9 overall in the Oracle-ITA rankings. In doubles, Anastasia Iamachkine when paired with Jessica Faila is ranked #24 and when paired with Ashley Lahey is ranked #78. Three Waves are ranked in singles #45 Lahey, #81 Failla and #88 Lekaj.
