MALIBU, Calif. — Riding a league-leading six-match win streak, the #39 Pepperdine men's tennis team heads south to San Diego for the West Coast Conference Men's Tennis Tournament in search of the program's 45th WCC Tournament title.
Like last season, the WCC Tournament will be held on the campus of San Diego State at the Aztec Tennis Center. Pepperdine received a first-round bye to the semifinals, where it will face the winner of 3-seed Pacific and 6-seed Portland on Friday, April 26 at 10 a.m. Should the Waves win on Friday, they will play in the championship match on Saturday, April 27 at 10 a.m.
Matches will be livestreamed via Track Tennis. All pertinent links and other information can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com and the WCC's website.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Splitting the regular-season title with the top-seeded San Diego Toreros, the #39 Pepperdine Waves enter the WCC Tournament as the 2-seed, looking to avenge their loss to USD earlier this spring. If the scenario sounds familiar, it should. Adam Schaechterle's squad was in the exact same spot a year ago.
And that year ended with the Waves hoisting the WCC Tournament trophy.
To follow last year's blueprint, the Waves will have to beat either 3-seed Pacific or 6-seed Portland in the semifinals — both of which weren't pushovers during the regular season. But after playing a formidable non-conference schedule against seven top-25 teams, the Waves are battle-tested and no strangers to pulling off big comebacks or grinding out 4-3 wins. Although its 13-10 record might not show it, Pepperdine rebuilt a roster that lost its top three singles players — including an All-American doubles team of Daniel De Jonge and Tim Zeitvogel — brought in six newcomers, and put together a resume potentially worthy of an at-large bid, and maybe more.
With one of the league's top-ranked individuals in #48 Edward Winter in singles, steady veterans like #122 Pietro Fellin and Linus Carlsson Halldin, plus important new additions to this year's team in George Davis, Chris Papa and Zach Stephens, the Waves have talent across the board to defend their tournament title.
Pepperdine's league-leading six-match win streak isn't an accident. During that run, the Waves have clinched the doubles point five times — the one time they didn't was against San Francisco when Pepperdine clinched the match after playing singles first.
While Carlsson Halldin and Davis hold down the top spot in the lineup with a 9-5 record, Fellin and Winter lead the team with a 12-3 record at the second doubles position. With two doubles teams acting as 1A and 1B on the roster, Stephens and Papa — a former NAIA national champion in doubles — are coming along at the third doubles position and give Pepperdine a third doubles team with a .500 record or better.
By and large, Pepperdine's singles play has been consistent throughout the WCC slate with Winter and Fellin holding down the top two spots in the singles ladder, veterans Carlsson Halldin and Davis occupying the middle of the lineup and a duo that has clinched more matches than anyone on the team in Stephens and Shelton occupying the back of the lineup.
The Waves' highest ranked singles player at #48 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, Winter has risen to the occasion in his first year of college tennis. Earlier this week, Winter pulled off a marvelous three-set comeback win over Peter Alam in which he stared down a 5-3 deficit in the second game, forced a tiebreak and clinched a share of the WCC regular-season title for Pepperdine with his 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory. He has six ranked singles wins so far, and will undoubtedly be tested once more this weekend.
However, the player who leads the team in WCC singles wins is Fellin, who put together a perfect 6-0 mark in conference play and won all of his matches in straight sets. Fellin's nine-match win streak leads the team, and he has clinched matches against Gonzaga and USC this season. Elsewhere in the lineup, freshman Stephens also has six WCC singles wins thanks to his persistent backhand and emotional clinch points — both of which have been staples for the Waves this season.
SCOUTING THE FIELD
Like last season, the #18 San Diego Toreros loom over the field of six WCC Tournament teams — and with a 20-3 record and a top-20 ranking in the latest ITA polls, USD is the favorite on paper to win the WCC Tournament. They have arguably the WCC's best duo in Oliver Tarvet (the WCC's top-ranked player at #6 in the latest ITA rankings) and Stian Klaassen, the latter of whom is a perfect 16-0 in dual match play. Combined, the duo just so happens to be the conference's best doubles team with a perfect 10-0 record in dual match play. Save for a shocking 4-3 loss to Pacific, USD rolled through the WCC during the regular-season.
Aside from USD and Pepperdine, the remaining four teams — 3-seed Pacific, 4-seed LMU, 5-seed Santa Clara and 6-seed Portland — are looking for their first-ever WCC Tournament titles. But anything can happen on a neutral court during postseason play. The rest of the field has several intriguing storylines and dark horse candidates who are looking to play their way into the postseason.
The #56 Pacific Tigers rode a 14-match win streak for the majority of the season, but are now on the wrong side of the bubble after losses to Gonzaga and Pepperdine. Led by Iowa transfer Peter Alam and a veteran-heavy supporting cast, the Tigers will more than likely not be an easy out as the 3-seed in the bracket — and, to the relief of USD — those Tigers are on the opposite side of the bracket as the Toreros. Should they beat Portland on Thursday, the Tigers will set up a rematch of Sunday's 4-3 loss to Pepperdine that included a) a doubles point decided by the last court in a tiebreaker, b) three three-set singles matches and c) the aforementioned impressive comeback from Winter to clinch the match. If a rematch happens, it won't disappoint.
Elsewhere, Portland and Santa Clara have enough top-end talent in Oscar Brown and Christian Lerby, respectively, to make things interesting. LMU comes into the tournament having lost three of their last five matches, and will look to turn things around against Santa Clara on USD's side of the bracket. It's worth noting Pepperdine gave up just two singles matches combined to these three teams in the regular-season.
THE LAST TIME…
Pepperdine won a WCC Tournament title: 2023 (4-0 over 1-seed USD)
San Diego won a WCC Tournament title: 2022 (4-3 over 2-seed Pepperdine)
Someone other than Pepperdine or San Diego won a WCC Tournament title: 1972, Seattle
A team won back-to-back WCC Tournament titles: USD in 2019-22 (the 2020 and 2021 tournaments were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic)
A 1-seed won the WCC Tournament: 2022, USD
A team from the opening round reached the title match: 2019, 6-seed Santa Clara
Pepperdine won a 4-3 contest in the title match: 2013 (4-3 over 2-seed BYU)
