MALIBU, Calif. — The #37 Pepperdine men's tennis team enters the home stretch this weekend with a trip to the Bay Area to play San Francisco and Santa Clara in its final West Coast Conferences matches.
On Friday, the Waves take on San Francisco at 2 p.m. PT, then they'll travel to Santa Clara to face the Broncos Saturday at 11 a.m. PT.
MATCH 23: #37 Pepperdine (14-8, 6-1 WCC) at San Francisco (1-14, 0-7 WCC) | Friday, April 21 | 2 p.m. PT | California Tennis Club | San Francisco, Calif.
MATCH 24: #37 Pepperdine (14-8, 6-1 WCC) at Santa Clara (14-8, 5-2 WCC) | Saturday, April 22 | 11 a.m. PT | Degheri Tennis Center | Santa Clara, Calif.
COVERAGE
Saturday's match will be live-streamed on PlaySight; a link to Friday's match will be provided once it is available. All live stream and live stat links can be found on the women's tennis schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com
SERIES HISTORY
Pepperdine has a significant advantage over both San Francisco and Santa Clara in the all-time series, as the Waves have gone 24-2 against the Dons and 25-1 against the Broncos, respectively. The last time Pepperdine lost to either Bay Area team was a 4-3 loss at San Francisco during the 2019 season.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Pepperdine wrapped up its final regular-season week of home matches by splitting contests against then-#30 San Diego and BYU.
Last Friday against San Diego, the Waves tied the match at 3-all thanks to a spirited comeback from Pietro Fellin (Milan, Italy) on court four with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory. Yet the Toreros would seal its 4-3 win on court six shortly thereafter to hand the Waves their first West Coast Conference loss.
The Waves cruised to a 4-0 sweep on Senior Day against BYU less than 24 hours later. After winning the doubles point in convincing fashion, Max Wuelfing (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), Robert Shelton (Lancaster, Pa.) and Maxi Homberg (Freising, Germany) — the only Wave to go 2-0 in singles last week — beat their opponents in straight-sets to finish the 4-0 sweep.
Due to the sweep, the Waves went from #35 to #37 in the ITA men's tennis polls released Tuesday. Pepperdine's senior doubles team of Daniel De Jonge (Vlissingen, Netherlands) and Tim Zeitvogel (Baden-Baden, Germany) checked in at #51 in the men's doubles team rankings, while De Jonge ranked #66 in singles and Zeitvogel was ranked #105.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
San Francisco has struggled as of late by going 1-17 on the season with its lone win being a 4-0 sweep over NAIA institution George Fox. Individually, Moritz Hoffman has the best singles record on the team at 6-6; he plays anywhere from court one to court four in the Dons' lineup.
Santa Clara, meanwhile, ranks third in the WCC standings with a 5-2 record. This month, Santa Clara has gone 4-1 and won its last three straight matches against BYU, San Francisco and non-Division I William Jessup. During that three-match stretch, the Broncos have only conceded one point.
Neither Santa Clara nor San Francisco has nationally ranked singles or doubles players.
UP NEXT: Following this weekend's matches, the Waves will head to San Diego for the West Coast Conference Championships, held at the Aztec Tennis Complex in San Diego, Calif. from April 27-29. Matchups and start times will be determined next week.
FOLLOW: Follow @PeppTennis on Facebook and Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to pepperdinewaves.com for all information, releases and schedules.
