MALIBU, Calif. — Days away from beginning the 2024 NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament, Pepperdine women's tennis players Savannah Broadus and Vivian Yang now know their first-round opponents.
Seeded 9-16 in the singles draw, Broadus will face Mississippi senior Anaelle Leclerq-Ficher in the first round of the singles draw, which begins on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 1 p.m. PT. Making their first NCAA tournament appearance as a doubles team, the 1-4 seed Broadus and Yang will face Georgia's team of Guillermina Grant and Aysegul Mert in the first round. Their match is scheduled for Nov. 20. Times have yet to be announced.
All matches will be livestreamed via ESPN+ and have color commentary from Cracked Racquets. Pertinent links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
This year marks the fourth appearance in the NCAA individual championship for #8 Broadus, who is piecing together one of the best athletic careers Pepperdine has ever seen, regardless of sport. The senior from Carrollton, Texas is tied for fourth (with teammate Lisa Zaar) in program history with 111 career singles wins. A four-time All-American in singles and doubles, Broadus is the fifth player in Pepperdine women's tennis history to qualify for the singles tournament all four years. She punched her ticket to this year's postseason by making the quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships back in September.
Broadus and Yang qualified for the postseason by winning the ITA Southwest Regional doubles title in October. Playing in their first tournament as a team, #24 Broadus and Yang won their first two matches comfortably before winning a three-set marathon over UCLA's #28 Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer and Ahmani Guichard in the semifinals. The Waves duo then routed UCLA freshmen Kate Fakih and Olivia Center 6-4, 6-1 in the title match.
No stranger to the NCAA Doubles Tournament, Broadus will be making her fourth appearance in the postseason. Last May in Stillwater, Okla., Broadus and longtime doubles partner Janice Tjen made history by becoming the first Pepperdine team to make the NCAA doubles final. However, they lost to Georgia's Dasha Vidmanova and, coincidentally, Mert in three sets. Nevertheless, Broadus heads to next week's action as Pepperdine's winningest doubles player with 114 career victories.
Although will be Yang's first appearance at the NCAA individual tournament, Yang was an instrumental part in Pepperdine's semifinal run in the team postseason in May. As a true freshman, Yang went 4-0 in the postseason at the sixth position en route to making the NCAA All-Tournament team.
If Broadus wins her first-round match, Pepperdine players will have won at least one NCAA singles match in the past nine postseasons. Broadus has also won at least one doubles match in all three of her postseason stints. Collectively, Pepperdine is 34-31 in the doubles tournament, while singles players have a 55-66 record in 34 years.
