SAN DIEGO Calif. — Aiming for its ninth-straight West Coast Conference women's tennis title, the #7 Pepperdine Waves will open the West Coast Conference Championships with a semifinal bout against Brigham Young at the Aztec Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif. this Friday at 10 a.m. PT.
Pepperdine has won an unprecedented 30 WCC Tournament titles — including the last eight championships. The Waves have won all but five WCC Tournament titles since the championship format was adopted by the conference in 1986. The conference championship was not played in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
MATCH 20: #7 Pepperdine (16-3, 7-0 WCC) vs. Brigham Young (12-8, 6-3 WCC) | Friday, April 28 | 10 a.m. PT | Aztec Tennis Center | San Diego, Calif.
COVERAGE
All West Coast Conference Championship matches will be live-streamed for free on Track Tennis. Links to live stats and live video can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.
SERIES HISTORY
In what will be both teams' final meeting in the WCC Championships before BYU departs for the Big 12 Conference this summer, the Waves have a 16-8 advantage over the Cougars in the all-time series. Pepperdine has won the last 12 meetings against BYU; earlier this season, Pepperdine won 5-2 against the then-ranked 74th Cougars in Provo, Utah.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
The #7 Pepperdine Waves enter the WCC Tournament with an unbeaten record in conference play and the top overall seed. All six singles players boast winning records in conference play, plus the Waves have two nationally ranked doubles teams with #1 Savannah Broadus (Carrollton, Texas) and Janice Tjen (Jakarta, Indonesia), plus #48 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand) and Lisa Zaar (Stockholm, Sweden).
Earlier this week, the Waves had five singles players earn all-conference awards, including the program's third-straight WCC Player of the Year in Tjen, who ranks 16th in the nation. Additionally, #19 Broadus and #31 Zaar earned first-team honors, Thamchaiwat earned a spot on the second team for singles and doubles, plus Nikki Redelijk (Windermere, Fla.) earned honorable mention honors in singles. Predictably, the nation's top-ranked doubles team of Broadus and Tjen earned first-team all-conference honors in doubles as well.
This week will be the first WCC Championship experience for Thamchaiwat — an All-WCC Second Team selection who transferred in from San Diego State last summer — and Anna Campana (Hillsborough, Calif.), Pepperdine's No. 6 singles player who competed for Wake Forest last season.
As a team, the Waves have won three-straight dual matches since falling on the road to UCLA on April 12.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Winners of the last three matches, BYU advanced to the semifinals with a 4-0 sweep of Portland on Thursday, April 27.
Individually, the Cougars are led by First Team All-WCC selection Yujia Huang, the only BYU player to earn all-conference awards in singles. In the latest ITA national rankings, BYU's doubles team of Emilee Astle and Jacque Dunyon checked in at 47th in the nation. That duo upset Broadus and Tjen in doubles earlier this season. However, Astle and her other doubles partner Huang also are ranked #63 in the national rankings. No BYU singles players are nationally ranked.
Although the Cougars were nationally ranked the last time they played Pepperdine, the team has since fallen out of the national rankings.
NEXT UP: Should the Waves advance to the championship game, they will compete on Saturday, April 29 at 10 a.m. Their opponent is yet to be determined.
FOLLOW: Follow @WavesTennis on Facebook and Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to pepperdinewaves.com for all information, releases and schedules.
