LOS ANGELES — Despite a weather delay that postponed the Pepperdine men's tennis team's match against #32 USC from Thursday to Friday, the #51 Waves finished the job with an emphatic 4-1 win over their crosstown foes on Friday evening.
Winners of their last two road matches against ranked in-state teams, the Waves (4-6) used the momentum from an entertaining doubles point win to beat the Trojans (5-6) handily in singles play. Maxi Homberg and Chris Papa prevailed in a tiebreak 7-6 (7) doubles point win, then five of Pepperdine's six singles players won their first sets to cap off the Waves' victory.
On Thursday afternoon, Pepperdine's Linus Carlsson Halldin and George Davis gave the Waves a leg up in doubles with a 6-3 win over Stefan Dostanic and Samuel Rubell. But rainstorms throughout the L.A. area led to a delay, which eventually postponed the match. At the time of the postponement, Homberg and Papa were knotted with 4-4 in the tiebreaker, while Pietro Fellin and Edward Winter were up 40-30 in the 12th game, but trailing 6-5.
Although the Trojans countered with a win at the third position on Friday, the Waves clinched the doubles point thanks to Homberg and Papa's win over Peter Makk and Lodewijk Weststrate at the first position. Both teams refused to budge until the Waves broke a 7-7 tie, rattled off the next two points and clinched the doubles point off a long rally that Homberg won with a series of overhead smashes at the net.
That doubles result fired up the Waves, who used three straight-set victories to notch their second straight win. Although USC evened the score with a win at the fourth position, #24 Winter beat Stefan Dostanic in straight sets after holding off Dostanic's first-set comeback attempt in a 7-5, 6-1 victory. Making his return to the singles lineup, graduate senior George Davis also posted a 7-5, 6-1 win albeit at the sixth position against Samuel Rubell.
Needing just one more singles win to clinch the match and with two courts reaching the third set, Fellin answered the call with a 6-4, 7-5 straight set win over #50 Peter Makk on court two. For Fellin, the victory not only brought him back into the win column after several tough defeats, but also marked his second win over a ranked singles opponent this season.
RESULTS
Singles
1. #24 Edward Winter (PEPP) def. Stefan Dostanic (USC) 7-5, 6-1
2. Pietro Fellin (PEPP) def. #50 Peter Makk (USC) 6-4, 7-5
3. #102 Lodewijk Weststrate (USC) vs. Linus Carlsson Halldin (PEPP) 3-6, 6-4, 4-2, unfinished
4. Karl Lee (USC) def. Chris Papa (PEPP) 6-4, 6-3
5. Zach Stephens (PEPP) vs. Volodymyr Iakubenko (USC) 7-6 (3), 2-6, 1-0, unfinished
6. George Davis (PEPP) def. Samuel Rubell (USC) 7-5, 6-1
Order of finish: 4,1,6,2*
Doubles
1. Maxi Homberg/Chris Papa (PEPP) def. Peter Makk/Lodewijk Weststrate (USC) 7-6 (7)
2. Linus Carlsson Halldin/George Davis (PEPP) def. Stefan Dostanic/Samuel Rubell (USC) 6-3
3. Volodymyr Iakubenko/Karl Lee (USC) def. Pietro Fellin/Edward Winter (PEPP) 7-5
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1
UP NEXT: The Waves kick off a six-match homestand with three matches against Ivy League schools, starting next Monday against #55 Yale. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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