Pepperdine University
Oklahoma State
Top-10 Showdown Awaits Women's Tennis in Stillwater
2/1/2024 2:13:00 PM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. — Playing in its biggest match of spring season to date, the #6 Pepperdine women's tennis team heads to Stillwater, Okla. to take on the #3 Oklahoma State Cowgirls on Saturday at 9 a.m. PT.
Saturday's match will be livestreamed via Cracked Racquets' YouTube channel. Links to live stats and the live stream can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.
This weekend will not only be the Waves' first match against a ranked opponent, but also a sneak preview of the site of the NCAA Championships held in May. Oklahoma State has a 4-5 edge in the all-time series over Pepperdine; the Waves have yet to win a match over the Cowgirls in Stillwater.
MATCH 3: #6 Pepperdine (2-0) at #3 Oklahoma State (4-0) | 9 a.m. PT | Stillwater, Okla. | Greenwood Tennis Center
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Holding steady at #6 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings, the Waves are coming off a successful ITA Kickoff Weekend, in which they beat San Diego State and LSU to punch their tickets to the ITA Indoor National Championships. Save for losing one doubles match over the weekend, Pepperdine handled both opponents easily in both 4-0 sweeps.
In doubles, the nation's fourth-ranked team of Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen and Pepperdine's team of Anna Campana and Nikki Redelijk boast perfect 2-0 records in dual singles play. This spring, Broadus and Tjen have a 5-0 record with two ranked wins coming in the Freeman Memorial Tournament in early January.
Reigning WCC Singles Player of the Week Lisa Zaar, who clinched for Pepperdine against LSU last Saturday, has a 4-1 record on the first line this spring. Zaar leads the team with three wins over ranked opponents — including a dominant, 6-2, 6-1 upset win over #2 Ane Oby Kajuru of Oklahoma State earlier this season. Elsewhere in the lineup, Pepperdine has four ranked singles players: #21Broadus, #77 Redelijk, #79 Campana and #96 Tjen.
The back half of Pepperdine's lineup has shown promising early returns, as true freshmen Vivian Yang and Jasmine Conway both helped Pepperdine on the fifth and sixth lines against LSU. Conway, in particular, has gone 2-0 in dual singles play so far this year.
SCOUTING THE COWGIRLS
A familiar foe for the Waves this spring, #3 Oklahoma State has gotten off to an impressive 5-0 start to dual match play ever since the two teams competed at the Freeman Memorial Tournament in early January. The Cowgirls have wins over #5 Michigan, #12 Ohio State and #13 UCLA — the latter of which occurred during ITA Kickoff Weekend in Des Moines last Saturday.
Oklahoma State has five ranked singles players, including #2 Ange Oby Kajuru, #13 Anastasiya Komar, #53 Lucia Peyre, #60 Ayumi Miyamoto and #62 Safiya Carrington. Komar, in particular, is on a three-match win streak in singles, plus she earned Big 12 Player of the Week honors for clinching in an upset win over UCLA's Tian Fangran.
In doubles, Kajuru and Komar are the #6 ranked team in the nation. However, earlier this year, Broadus and Tjen beat the Cowgirl duo 6-4 at the Freeman Memorial Tournament. Saturday should be a rematch against the two top-10 teams. Should OSU split up its top 10 duo, Komar and Raquel Gonzalez are also ranked #12 in the latest ITA doubles rankings.
The singles lineup calculus could be interesting for the Cowgirls.
Komar is 1-1 against Pepperdine players in singles with a three-set loss to Broadus and a three-set win over Lisa Zaar. Kajuru is also 1-1 in singles, yet a win over Broadus and a loss to Zaar. In the middle of the lineup, Peyre and Miyamoto played Redelijk at the Freeman Memorial, going a combined 2-0 against the Pepperdine senior.
Nevertheless, each singles point will have significance for the Cowgirls, who eked out a 4-3 win over UCLA and had two matches come down to the third set in the team's 4-2 win over Michigan.
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Players Mentioned
