MALIBU, Calif. – The #8 Pepperdine women's tennis program has advanced to the Round 16 for the sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament after taking down #19 USC for the 10th straight time, 4-1, on Saturday afternoon at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
The doubles portion of the afternoon took nearly 75 minutes, as all three courts were tight throughout. USC (18-12) took the ranked matchup on court one to open up an early lead. Shiori Fukuda (Tokyo, Japan) and Taisiya Pachkaleva (Moscow, Russia) brought Pepperdine (22-6) even with a 7-5 win on court three, forcing court two to decide the doubles point. It entered into a tiebreak, and after going down 5-0 in the seven-point tiebreak, #42 Savannah Broadus (Carrollton, Texas) and Janice Tjen (Jakarta, Indonesia) roared back to win 7-6 (9) and clinch the all-important doubles point for the Waves.
Pepperdine kept the momentum going in singles, taking five of six first sets. #85 Broadus blew past Grace Piper on court five, registering a 6-2, 6-0 victory to open up a 2-0 Waves lead. In her first two NCAA Tournament matches, Broadus only dropped two games total.
The Trojans then cut the lead in half after taking the top-15 matchup on court two in straight sets. However, #27 Lisa Zaar (Stockholm, Sweden) answered back with a ranked win of her own, defeating #104 Snow Han on court three, 6-1, 6-1.
With one more win needed for an overall match victory, both #40 Pachkaleva and #59 Victoria Flores (Fort Dodge, Iowa) had match points on courts four and six respectively, but it was Pachkaleva who got to the finish line first with a 6-4, 6-2 win over #84 Naomi Cheong to send Pepperdine to next weekend.
RESULTS
DOUBLES
#72 Cayetano/Ewing def. #45 Flores/Zaar 6-4
#42 Broadus/Tjen def. Cheong/Piper 7-6 (9)
Fukuda/Pachkaleva def. Han/Willson 7-5
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
SINGLES
#91 Tjen vs. #50 Ewing 6-3, 4-3 unfinished
#7 Cayetano def. #15 Fukuda 6-0, 6-3
#27 Zaar def. #104 Han 6-1, 6-1
#40 Pachkaleva def. #84 Cheong 6-4, 6-2
#85 Broadus def. Piper 6-2, 6-0
#59 Flores vs. Willson 6-2, 5-2 unfinished
Order of finish: 5, 2, 3, 4*
NEXT UP: Pepperdine will host the Super Regional round next weekend, facing #9 Miami (Fla.) on Friday, May 13 at 1:00 p.m. The winner will head to Champaign, Illinois, for the NCAA quarterfinals on Friday, May 20.
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