MALIBU, California – The #5 Pepperdine women's tennis program will compete early and often over the course of the next few days, hosting #21 Loyola Marymount before heading to the Bay Area to take on San Francisco and #14 California.
MATCH 15: #5 Pepperdine (11-3, 1-0 WCC) vs. #21 Loyola Marymount (9-1, 0-0 WCC) | Saturday, March 26 | 12:00 p.m. | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Malibu, Calif.
MATCH 16: #5 Pepperdine (11-3, 1-0 WCC) vs. San Francisco (7-4, 0-0 WCC, at Pacific on Fri. and at Saint Mary's on Sat.) | Monday, March 28 | 11:00 a.m. | Golden Gate Park | San Francisco, Calif.
MATCH 17: #5 Pepperdine (11-3) vs. #14 California (9-5, vs. USC on Sat.) | Tuesday, March 29 | 12:00 p.m. | Hellman Tennis Complex | Berkeley, Calif.
SERIES HISTORY: Pepperdine is an astounding 40-2 all-time against its PCH Cup rival. The Waves have never lost to LMU in Malibu, going a perfect 23-0. Pepperdine has found similar success against USF, leading the all-time series 17-0. This is Pepperdine's first trip to San Francisco since 2018. Although Pepperdine and Cal are in different conferences, this is the third meeting already this season between the schools. Pepperdine opened the 2022 dual campaign with a 4-3 home loss to then-#9 Cal. However, the Waves returned the favor with a 4-1 win against the then-#4 Bears in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February. Pepperdine has won six of the last eight meetings with Cal.
COVERAGE: Links to live video and stats are available at PepperdineWaves.com. Scores will be updated periodically on the web and on Twitter at @WavesTennis.
WAVES IN THE RANKINGS: As a team, Pepperdine is ranked fifth in the ITA computer ratings and seventh in the Tennis Channel/USTA college poll.
SCOUTING THE WAVES: The Waves earned an impressive top-30 win on Wednesday, taking down #29 UC Santa Barbara 4-0. Pepperdine swept the weekly WCC awards that were announced on Tuesday, as Shiori Fukuda won her first career Singles Player of the Week honor, and the pair of Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen won their second consecutive Doubles Team of the Week award. The ITA singles and doubles rankings are littered with Waves: #9 Fukuda, #17 Lisa Zaar, #36 Taisiya Pachkaleva, #51 Victoria Flores, #79 Tjen, #82 Broadus, #98 Nikki Redelijk, #16 Broadus/Tjen, #17 Flores/Zaar and #43 Flores/Tjen.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: LMU has been one of the nation's biggest surprises this season, riding an eight-match winning streak and sitting at 9-1 with wins over then-#5 UCLA and UCSB. While no Lions are ranked, Veronika Miroshnichenko is a perfect 6-0 on the season and earned the first WCC Singles Player of the Week honor (3/15). As a team in singles, LMU is 28-12.
San Francisco has won its last five and begins conference play this weekend. Most recently, the Dons defeated Northern Arizona on March 17. No players are ranked by the ITA.
Since dropping a 4-3 decision to Texas on February 27, Cal has won three straight, all within the Pac-12 after defeating Oregon, Utah and Colorado by a combined score of 19-2. The Golden Bears have three singles players and three doubles pairs ranked by the ITA: Jessica Alsola (#62), Haley Giavara (#101), Katja Wiersholm (#122), Alsola/Wiersholm (#29), Giavara/Valentina Ivanov (#35) and Alsola/Erin Richardson (#45).
FOLLOW: Follow @WavesTennis on Facebook and Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to pepperdinewaves.com for all information, releases and schedules.
