MALIBU, Calif. — Making its return to California after playing two matches in the southeast last weekend, the #53 Pepperdine men's tennis team heads to #75 UC Santa Barbara to square off with the Gauchos on Thursday at 11 a.m.
Thursday's match will be live-streamed via PlaySight. All live stream and live stat links are on the men's tennis team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.
Pepperdine and UCSB have met 42 times and the Waves have a commanding 38-4 lead in the all-time series. Last season at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center, Maxi Homberg clinched the Waves' 4-3 victory over the Gauchos in the team's home opener.
MATCH 9: #53 Pepperdine (2-6) vs. #75 UC Santa Barbara (3-2) | Thursday, Feb. 29 | 11 a.m. | Arnhold Tennis Center | Santa Barbara, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
The #53 Waves look to keep positive momentum going after playing in two 4-3 matches at then-#28 Vanderbilt and #11 Texas A&M last weekend. While the Waves managed to pull off the 4-3 upset win in Nashville, Pepperdine fell in another 4-3 decision at the hands of the #11 Aggies to cap off the road trip.
Despite the split, the Waves are trending in the right direction after their second road trip of the season. For their efforts last week, the Waves swept the West Coast Conference's weekly awards, as Homberg was named WCC singles player of the week, while Pietro Fellin and Edward Winter earned WCC doubles team of the week honors. Homberg is on a three-match win streak at the fifth position, including a three-set victory that clinched the Waves' upset win at #28 Vanderbilt last Friday.
So far, Homberg and Winter are the Waves' only ranked doubles team at No. 53, while Winter is ranked 34th in the latest ITA singles polls. However, Winter and Fellin have Pepperdine's longest win streak of all the Waves' doubles teams; they went 2-0 last weekend and picked up their first win over a ranked doubles team.
Pepperdine and UCSB crossed paths several times this past fall. The Waves went 2-1 in singles matches against the Gauchos, including a pair of ITA Southwest Regional Round of 64 wins: Linus Carlsson Halldin's three-set win over Luka Mrsic and Homberg's 7-5, 7-5 win over Conrad Brown.
SCOUTING THE GAUCHOS
Playing its third of ten-straight home matches, the #75 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are on a three-match win streak heading into Thursday. UCSB's two losses in dual match play were against then-#21 Michigan State and Georgia Tech, both of which took place at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Jan. 28-29. Since then, UCSB eked out a 4-3 win over Santa Clara and swept #68 Idaho and Saint Mary's.
While the eight-man UCSB roster isn't the deepest, the Gauchos still have one ranked doubles team in #34 Gianluca Brunkow and Pablo Masjuan, plus one ranked singles player in #20 Masjuan. Doubles play has been a strength for the Gauchos: UCSB has won the doubles point in four out of their five matches thanks to Masjuan and Brunkow's 3-1 record at the first position, plus Brown and Mrsic's perfect 4-0 mark at the second position.
In singles, Kai Brady is UCSB's wins leader with a perfect 4-0 record at the fifth position, while all six Gauchos have a .500 record or better. Despite having a solid fall season that saw him make the quarterfinals at the ITA National Fall Championships, #20 Masjuan has a 2-2 record at the first position with both losses coming against ranked players.
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