MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine men's tennis program takes its third and fourth trips to Pac-12 venues this season, heading to Arizona for a pair of matches against the #17 Wildcats and Sun Devils.
Match 4: Pepperdine (1-2) at #17 Arizona (3-1) | Friday, February 3 | 11 a.m. PT | LaNelle Robson Tennis Center | Tucson, Ariz.
Match 5: Pepperdine (1-2) at Arizona State (2-2) | Sunday, February 5 | 12 p.m. PT | Whiteman Tennis Center | Tempe, Ariz.
COVERAGE
Both matches will have live video available. Links can be found on PepperdineWaves.com.
SERIES HISTORY
Pepperdine is 7-2 all-time against Arizona, winning three of four matches in Tucson. Last season, Pepperdine upset #14 Arizona 5-2 in the Waves' home opener.
The Waves have found similar success against ASU, going 17-9 against the Sun Devils all-time. Pepperdine's last win in Tempe came in 2004, though the teams have only had two meetings in Arizona since then. Last February, Pepperdine picked up a 4-3 home win over ASU.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Pepperdine split a pair of matches in Palo Alto last weekend at the ITA Kick-Off event, falling to Texas A&M 4-2 on Sunday before picking up its first win of the season on Monday against Georgia Tech, 4-2. Freshman
Maxi Homberg has won the first three dual matches of his college career to lead Pepperdine with a 3-0 singles record. Homberg and
Eero Vasa, along with the 34th-ranked pair of
Daniel De Jonge and
Tim Zeitvogel, have each won a pair of dual matches to open the spring.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Arizona opened the 2023 campaign with a trio of wins over Bryant, Grand Canyon and Florida Atlantic, but fell 4-0 to #6 Texas to keep the Wildcats from advancing to ITA Indoors. Colton Smith and Inaki Cabrera-Bello are each 2-0 this spring. Six Wildcats are ranked in singles by the ITA: Jonas Ziverts (#19), Herman Hoeyerall (#54), Nick Lagaev (#74), Jay Friend (#78), Smith (#85) and Gustaf Strom (#117).
Arizona State also started out 2-0 with wins over Wichita State and Bryant, but went 0-2 at the ultra-competitive ITA Kick-Off regional hosted by Baylor, dropping 4-2 decisions to both the host and then-#12 Bears and San Diego. No Sun Devils are ranked in singles or doubles by the ITA.
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