MALIBU, Calif. — Taking its last road trip of the regular season, the #41 Pepperdine men's tennis team plays at Saint Mary's and #48 Pacific this week with a potential West Coast Conference title on the line.
Friday's match at Saint Mary's will start at 2 p.m. while Sunday's match at Pacific is also scheduled for 2 p.m. If available, live stream and live stat links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.
Tied with Pacific at 5-1 in the WCC standings, the Waves will win a share of the WCC regular season title with two wins this week. San Diego also sits at one loss with its 6-1 record, so Pepperdine will only win an outright title if the #16 Toreros slip up against Gonzaga or LMU this week.
MATCH 22: #41 Pepperdine (11-10, 5-1 WCC) at Saint Mary's (7-12, 2-4 WCC) | Friday, April 19 | 2 p.m. | Timothy Korth Tennis Complex | Moraga, Calif.
MATCH 23 #41 Pepperdine (11-10, 5-1 WCC) at #48 Pacific (16-2, 5-1 WCC) | Sunday, April 21 | 2 p.m. | Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center| Stockton, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Riding a five-match win streak into the final week of the regular season, the #41 Pepperdine Waves have stayed their course. The team bounced back from its lone conference loss to San Diego with four dominant wins, did its part by rising in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association team rankings and now that persistence might pay off in the form of a share of the WCC title.
Earlier this week, the Waves swept San Francisco and beat Portland 4-2 on Senior Day to improve their conference record to 5-1. Over the last four wins, the Waves have surrendered just two singles matches. The doubles teams have been clicking: Pepperdine's teams of Linus Carlsson Halldin and George Davis and Edward Winter and Pietro Fellin have essentially been teams 1A and 1B as of late. Winter and Fellin come into this week on a three-match win streak, while Carlsson Halldin and Davis have held down the top doubles position for the majority of conference play.
Atop the lineup, freshman #44 Winter is still the Waves' only ranked singles player; so far, he has answered the call against the WCC's top singles players after playing Oliver Tarvet of USD earlier this year. Fellin has won his last eight straight singles matches at the second position, and seven of those victories have been in straight sets. Not to be overlooked, seniors Davis and Robert Shelton went a combined 3-0 during Monday's Senior Day doubleheader.
Historically, Pepperdine has a 29-0 record against Saint Mary's and a 14-2 record against Pacific. The Waves have been perfect against WCC opponents not named San Diego ever since the 2020 season — Head Coach Adam Schaechterle's second year at the helm of the Pepperdine men's tennis program.
SCOUTING THE GAELS
Picked to finish eighth in the WCC preseason poll, the Saint Mary's Gaels come into the weekend fighting for a spot in the WCC Tournament. Locked in a three-way tie for sixth place with Santa Clara and Gonzaga, the Gaels need to improve on their 2-4 record this week to punch their tickets to San Diego. Only the top six teams participate in the WCC Tournament next week.
Winners of just one of their last five matches — a 4-3 stunner over #58 Santa Clara — the Gaels look to reverse course after losing 4-0 to Pacific on Wednesday. The Gaels have won the doubles point twice this season, including in both of their conference wins over Santa Clara and LMU. SMC's team of Carlos Ramos Membrives and Ellison Greco lead the team with a 6-3 mark in dual match play. In singles, freshman Paulo Hugo Etchecoin has a team-high eight dual-match singles wins at the back half of the lineup, while junior Thibaud Maxant has seven wins playing mostly at the fourth position.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Outperforming their fourth-place standing in the WCC preseason poll, the #48 Pacific Tigers have been the WCC's surprise team this season. With a 16-2 record — including a stretch of 14-straight wins spanning from January to April — and just one loss in conference play, the Tigers are gunning for their first-ever WCC title against Pepperdine this weekend.
How, exactly, did the Tigers get into this position? A 4-3 upset win over then-No. 13 San Diego on April 7 put Pacific in the conversation for the conference title. But one week later, the Tigers fell 4-2 to Santa Clara for their first loss in nearly three months, which opened the door for Pepperdine to contend for the WCC title on Sunday.
Despite checking in at No. 48 in the ITA rankings, the Tigers have no nationally ranked singles players or doubles teams. However, five Tigers have 10 or more dual match singles wins, led by senior Peter Alam's 12-1 record playing across the top half of the lineup. Sophomore Tiago Silva — Pacific's hero in the win over USD — also has a dozen wins albeit with four losses while serving as the Tigers' number three singles player. In fact, the third position is statistically Pacific's best position in the lineup: Between Silva, redshirt sophomore Terence Das and others, the Tigers have a .938 win percentage on court three.
The doubles point has been Pacific's strong suit this season, as the Tigers have clinched the doubles point 10 times. Pacific could have used the doubles point in its loss to Santa Clara, yet both teams played singles first to try to beat inclement weather later that day. Alam and Jonas Trainauskas lead the team with a 9-2 record at the first doubles position, while Das and Silva are second on the team with five dual match doubles wins. All told, Pacific has five teams with a .500 record or better in dual-match play.
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