MALIBU, California – In a rematch of the 2022 NCAA quarterfinals and the 2021 NCAA semifinals, the #8 Pepperdine women's tennis program heads to Seattle for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships to take on a familiar foe in #2 North Carolina.
MATCH 3: #8 Pepperdine (2-0) vs. #2 North Carolina (12-0) | Friday, February 10 | 6:30 p.m. PT | Seattle Tennis Club | Seattle, Wash.
MATCH 4: #8 Pepperdine (2-0) vs. #7 Virginia (5-0) OR #12 Michigan (4-0) | Saturday, February 11 | 3:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. PT | Seattle Tennis Club | Seattle, Wash.
MATCH 5: #8 Pepperdine (2-0) vs. TBD | Sunday, February 12 | TBD | Seattle Tennis Club or Nordstrom Tennis Club | Seattle, Wash.
MATCH 6 (IF PEPPERDINE WINS FIRST THREE): #8 Pepperdine (2-0) vs. TBD | Monday, February 13 | 12 p.m. PT | Nordstrom Tennis Club | Seattle, Wash.
COVERAGE
All matches throughout the weekend will have both live video and live stats. Links for each can be found on PepperdineWaves.com.
The full bracket for ITA Indoors can be found on the Tournament Central page
here. Teams, live scores and the schedule for the weekend can also be found at this link.
SERIES HISTORY
Pepperdine and North Carolina have developed a bit of a rivalry over the last few years, meeting in each of the last two NCAA tournaments with each team winning a match. In 2021, it was Pepperdine who ended #1 UNC's undefeated season in the NCAA semifinals with a 4-3 victory. In the 2022 NCAA quarterfinals, UNC got its revenge with a 4-3 win over the Waves. The teams met in the semifinals of the 2021 ITA Indoors, with UNC winning 4-1.
Pepperdine has only met Virginia three times, winning all three matches. The last meeting came in the 2020 ITA Indoors where the Waves won 4-2. Other meetings were in 2005 and 1994.
The Waves have won six of eight all-time meetings with Michigan, last defeating the Wolverines 4-3 in Ann Arbor last season. Pepperdine also handled Michigan 4-0 in the round of 16 at the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The schools will meet this season regardless of whether or not they see each other at ITA Indoors, as Pepperdine is set to host Michigan on March 4.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Both matches up in the Bay Area for Pepperdine got rained out last weekend, but Pepperdine had little trouble in its opening weekend of the dual season on January 28-29, collecting 4-0 sweeps over both Clemson and Memphis to advance to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle in mid-February.
Janice Tjen (Jakarta, Indonesia) won both singles matches over the weekend, while
Lisa Zaar (Stockholm, Sweden),
Savannah Broadus (Carrollton, Texas),
Nikki Redelijk (Windermere, Fla.) and
Anna Campana (Hillsborough, Calif.) also won singles matches. The fourth-ranked doubles pair of Broadus and Tjen, along with Redelijk and Zaar, each won a pair of doubles matches as well. In the latest ITA singles rankings, Broadus is #16, Tjen is #20 and Zaar enters the rankings for the first time in 2022-23 at #44.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
North Carolina has opened the spring in its usually dominant form, winning its first 12 matches of 2023. Most recently, UNC defeated #5 Georgia 5-2 on February 1. Fiona Crawley, the #1 singles player in the country, has won both ITA fall majors (ITA All-Americans and ITA National Fall Championships) while starting out the dual season 6-1. Seven Tar Heels are ranked in singles in the latest ITA rankings, while four doubles pairs are also ranked: #1 Crawley, #9 Carson Tanguilig, #12 Abby Forbes, #18 Anika Yarlagadda, #62 Elizabeth Scotty, #63 Reilly Tran, #122 Reese Brantmeier, #1 Crawley/Tanguilig, #20 Tanguilig/Tran, #30 Forbes/Scotty and #32 Brantmeier/Scotty.
Like Pepperdine, Virginia advanced to the national quarterfinals last season and has looked equally strong in 2023. Despite losing one of the best players in the country in Emma Navarro, the Cavaliers have started the spring 5-0 and have only surrendered three points total in five matches. #80 Hibah Shaikh is 5-0 this dual season, while Sara Ziodato is 4-0 and #94 Annabelle Xu and #101 Natasha Subhash are both 3-0. Three other Cavaliers are ranked in singles along with two doubles pairs: #60 Julia Adams, #79 Elaine Chervinsky, #2 Chervinsky/Subhash and #45 Adams/Xu.
Through four matches this spring, Michigan already holds a trio of ranked wins, taking down then-#4 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State twice – once when the Cowgirls were ranked 14th and once when ranked 19th. Andrea Cerdan leads the Wolverines with a spotless 4-0 singles record this spring, while #49 Lily Jones and #68 Kari Miller are both 3-0. A host of other Wolverines are ranked in singles and doubles by the ITA: Julia Fliegner (#33), Jaedan Brown (#36), Gala Mesochoritou (#98), #3 Brown/Miller and #50 Fliegner/Jones.
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