Waves Unveil 2024 Spring Schedule
12/28/2023 9:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. — A challenging road-heavy slate, eight home matches and eight matchups against top-25 teams from last year's Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll highlight the Pepperdine women's tennis schedule, which was announced Thursday.
All home matches will be played at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center and live-streamed via PlaySight. Admission to any home match is free to the public. Schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.
Pepperdine has scheduled aggressively in head coach Per Nilsson's 10th year with the women's tennis program: 10 opponents made the NCAA Tournament — and of those teams, four earned top-16 seeds — plus eight teams on the schedule made the final ITA Top 25 poll last season. With this schedule, the Waves will be tested as they aim for their 36th-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th-straight WCC regular season title this year.
The Waves' season begins at the Freeman Memorial Tournament, hosted by UNLV from Jan. 12-14, and then Pepperdine hosts the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 26-27. San Diego State will face the Waves on Friday, Jan. 26, then either LSU or fellow WCC school Loyola Marymount await on Jan. 27.
Playing at the site of this year's NCAA Tournament in Stillwater, Okla., the Waves take on Oklahoma State on Feb. 3. Should the Waves qualify for the ITA Indoor National Championship, it will take place in Seattle, Wash. from Feb. 9-12. Neutral site dual matches against Auburn (Feb. 23) and Florida (Feb. 25) at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. wrap up the month of February.
After over a month on the road, Pepperdine hosts LMU on Friday, March 1 for the first match of WCC play. From there, Pepperdine heads to Big Ten country to play Ohio State (March 8) and Michigan (March 10). Pepperdine will then stay home for a pair of Pac-12 foes, starting with California (March 17) and USC (March 23) before playing road matches at San Francisco (March 29) and UC Santa Barbara (March 30).
One more non-conference road trip to Stanford (April 5) and California (April 6) kicks off the month of April, then the Waves will host cross-town rival UCLA on April 11 for its final regular-season non-conference dual match. A Pacific Northwest swing to Portland (April 13) and Gonzaga (April 14) wraps up WCC road action before the Waves host San Diego on April 19. Senior Day will be against Saint Mary's at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Saturday, April 20 at noon.
For the second straight year, the WCC Tournament takes place in San Diego, Calif. on April 26-27, where the Waves look to win their ninth consecutive West Coast Conference Tournament title.
Postseason play begins the following weekend, then each round of the NCAA Tournament will be played at host sites until the semifinals, which will be held in Stillwater, Okla. from May 16-25. After the conclusion of the NCAA Team Championship, the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament takes place for what could be the final time in the spring before the individual tournament moves to the fall in 2024-25.
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