LOS ANGELES, California – The #16 Pepperdine men's tennis program opened West Coast Conference action strong on Saturday, holding off Loyola Marymount to earn a 4-0 win at the LMU Tennis Center.
 
The doubles portion of the match nearly lasted an hour, as the Waves' duo of Andrew Rogers (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Eero Vasa (Turku, Finland) started out the afternoon with a 6-3 win on court one. Court two went to the Lions (5-11, 0-2 WCC), and court three needed a tiebreak in the third set to determine the winner of the doubles point. Pepperdine's Enrique Luque Rico (Cordoba, Spain) and Tim Zeitvogel (Baden-Baden, Germany) earned a 7-6 victory to take the lead into singles play.
 
The Waves took all six singles first sets, and Rico kept the momentum going for Pepperdine (9-5, 1-0 WCC) with a 6-3, 6-0 win on court six over Austin Di Giulio. Holding a 2-0 lead in the match, #35 Zeitvogel earned another win on the day, this time in singles as he was a 7-5, 6-1 winner on court two over John Otico. Down 3-0, the Lions would not go away, as LMU pushed four courts to a third set. However, #13 Daniel De Jonge (Vlissingen, Netherlands) rallied in the third set to post a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win on court one which sealed the WCC win for Pepperdine.
 
RESULTS
 
DOUBLES
 
Rogers/Vasa def. Nguyen/Pantino 6-3
Dominiquez/Ranaivo def. De Jonge/Hadigian 7-5
Rico/Zeitvogel def. De Giulio/Torlic 7-6
 
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
 
SINGLES
 
#13 De Jonge def. Esses 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
#35 Zeitvogel def. Otico 7-5, 6-1
Vasa vs. Dominiquez 7-5, 6-7 unfinished
#48 Rogers vs. De Alencar 6-3, 6-7, 0-4 unfinished
Hadigian vs. Torlic 6-4, 6-7, 2-3 unfinished
Rico def. Di Giulio 6-3, 6-0
 
Order of finish: 6, 2, 1*
 
NEXT UP: Pepperdine stays on the road, heading north to take on Pacific at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, April 1.
 
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