LOS ANGELES – Despite singles wins from Guy Den Ouden and Tim Zeitvogel, the #28 Pepperdine men's tennis team was defeated 4-2 by a tough #12 USC squad on Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Second Round.
 
The Waves finish the season at 16-7, with an unblemished 8-0 record in West Coast Conference play. Today's match was the last dual appearance for seniors Adrian Oetzbach and Pawel Jankowiak.
 
RESULTS
#12 USC 4, #28 Pepperdine 2
DOUBLES
(1) #10 Cukierman/R. Smith (USC) def. #71 Den Ouden/Oetzbach (PEP) - 6-3
(2) Dostanic/Frye (USC) def. Summaria/Zeitvogel (PEP) - 7-5
(3) Jackson/Sands (USC) vs. De Jonge/Fellin (PEP) - 5-5 susp.
Order of finish: 1, 2
 
SINGLES
(1) #49 Daniel Cukierman (USC) def. #119 Adrian Oetzbach (PEP) -  7-6 (4), 6-1
(2) Guy Den Ouden (PEP) def. #52 Riley Smith (USC) - 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
(3) #116 Stefan Dostanic (USC) def. Daniel De Jonge (PEP) - 7-6 (12), 6-2*
(4) Tim Zeitvogel (PEP) def. Bradley Frye (USC) - 6-3, 7-6 (5)
(5) Lodewijk Weststrate (USC) def. Corrado Summaria (PEP) - 6-4, 6-1
(6) Jake Sands (USC) vs. Pietro Fellin (PEP) - 3-6, 6-3, 1-3 susp.
Order of finish: 5, 1, 4, 2, 3*
 
RECAP
The Waves began the day in doubles, where courts two and three put up fights, trading games but the pair of Corrado Summaria and Tim Zeitvogel were eventually thwarted at 7-5, relinquishing the doubles point to the Trojans.
 
In singles, Pepperdine went down 3-0 early but wouldn't go out without a fight. Tim Zeitvogel defeated USC's Bradley Frye on court four in straight sets, going 6-3 in the first but needing a tiebreaker in the second to bring out the 7-6(5) win. Zeitvogel has infamously not lost in dual singles since March of 2019, marking over two years without a loss.
 
Freshman Guy Den Ouden finished next, upsetting the #52 Riley Smith on court two. The unranked Wave took down the Trojan at 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to earn Pepperdine's second and final point of the afternoon.
 
SEASON SUMMARY
After finishing the abrupt 2020 season as the last undefeated program in the country, the Waves used that momentum to carry them into the 2021 season. With three early losses to tough competition at the beginning of the season, Pepperdine finally got their groove back with a 5-2 upset of then-#14 Oklahoma State. The Waves then marched into Troy and stole a 4-3 win over then-#8 USC, marking the first win for the program at Marks Stadium in 21 years.

The guys then rolled through WCC play, allowing only five total team points to conference opponents. A 4-2 win over previously undefeated BYU clinched the team's first NCAA Tournament berth since 2013, followed by a 4-0 defeat of San Diego to earn the outright conference title on Malibu soil.
 
The championship was the program's 44^th overall, as the school with the next-highest amount of titles was USD with nine.
 
Daniel De Jonge had an incredible junior year with the Waves, going 10-6 overall in singles while never dropping a match when playing on court two. Sophomore Pietro Fellin also had a breakout year of sorts, winning nine of 14, going 9-0 on court six as a guaranteed win each match. Fellow sophomore Robert Shelton saw the most success on court five for Pepperdine, going 8-5 on the dual season, highlighted by the match-clinching blow against USC in March.
 
Zeitvogel, as previously mentioned, has not lost in over two years- a streak he continued diligently this season on courts four and five for the Waves. Den Ouden went a remarkable 16-3 with the majority of the wins coming on court two as a freshman, seeing multiple upsets and clinch points on the season.
 
Senior captain Oetzbach played the toughest position in the lineup every match at the No. 1 singles position, and put up an absolute fight in every game. Throughout his career, Oetzbach earned clinch points in huge matches for the Waves. 
 
UP NEXT
The #71 pair of Oetzbach and Den Ouden will travel to Orlando, Florida to compete in the NCAA Doubles Championship from May 23-28 at the USTA National Campus.