And in a sense, she had completed several marathons of her own. Tjen not only outlasted San Diego's Elizabeth Goldsmith in her 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win on court one, but also helped Pepperdine complete a near-flawless conference campaign for the program's 43rd and 44th WCC titles.
"It felt special to finish this one off — especially with such a tough fight and with my teammates there with me," Tjen told the WCC afterward. "It's not easy. Today was a full team effort. Each one of us contributed to this and worked hard for this."
Fittingly, all four seniors on Pepperdine's roster had a hand in winning the 2024 WCC Tournament. Seniors Lisa Zaar and Anna Campana got things started with their 6-3 doubles win on court three, then Nikki Redelijk and freshman Vivian Yang clinched the doubles point moments later. Then in singles, Campana and Tjen provided two of the three singles matches required for the sweep.
"It's fun for the girls to finish off the regular season on a good note," Pepperdine head coach Per Nilsson told the WCC after the match. "We have four seniors who mean a great deal to this program. They've bought in and we've asked a lot of them. Our program is not easy, and we've tried to find that balance of enjoying the moment and giving it our all."
Although the 4-0 score was the same as the teams' regular-season meeting from a week ago, the Waves got a better shot from San Diego. This time around, the Toreros threatened to clinch the doubles point, pushed three matches to third sets and were on the verge of putting a point on the board when Tjen clinched the match. Despite the result, the Toreros' season is likely not finished. Both USD and Pepperdine will find out their NCAA Tournament opponents on the selection show next Monday at 3 p.m. PT.
"I feel for San Diego because they had two crushing injuries in the last two weeks," Pepperdine head coach Per Nilsson told the WCC after the match. "They had an amazing year and they've improved so much so quickly. They don't give up. We knew it was going to be a tough battle no matter what, and a lot of credit goes to their players and their staff for showing up and putting up a fight."
San Diego did put up a fight in doubles, as it pulled an upset on the first position to not only even the doubles point, but also put pressure on Redelijk and Yang to not slip up on court two. Yet the Waves duo came through. In her first pressure-packed postseason match of her collegiate career, Yang dealt two aces in the final game and set up Redelijk at the net on match point in the Waves' doubles-point-clinching, 6-4 win.
Despite the Toreros challenging the top of the Waves' lineup to start singles play, Pepperdine senior #79 Anna Campana blazed through her first set against Filippa Bruu-Syversen on court five, blanking the junior in a first set that wrapped up in less than 30 minutes. Campana went on to win her first eight games of her match before Bruu-Syversen got on the board in the third game of the second set. That would be the only game Campana surrendered, as the Hillsborough, Calif. native broke back in the fourth game and rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 straight-set win.
One court over, #14 Savannah Broadus tried shaking off San Diego's Jordyn McBride, who hung with the Pepperdine junior for eight games before Broadus flipped a switch. Broadus broke McBride in the ninth game and consolidated the break to win her first set 6-4. After breaking McBride to start the second set, Broadus went on to take a 5-1 lead before McBride held serve and broke Broadus on deuce point to extend her match, albeit only for a moment. Broadus broke back on deuce point and finished off her match 6-4, 6-3 to give Pepperdine a commanding 3-0 lead.
While Campana and Broadus' matches were going on, Tjen was locked in a three-set struggle with Goldsmith on court one. Having to fend off not only her opponent, but also a pro-San Diego crowd with the Toreros' men's tennis team in attendance, Tjen fell behind in a difficult first-set loss.
But signs of Tjen's comeback were apparent late in the first set. The Pepperdine senior trailed 5-2, but held off match point and broke Goldsmith on deuce point to make the score 5-4, and although Tjen would lose the first set, she was not going anywhere. Tjen blitzed Goldsmith in a brisk, 6-1 second-set win to even the score before taking a massive 5-0 lead in the third set. Goldsmith tried mounting one more comeback with a key hold in the sixth game, then the USD fifth-year senior broke Tjen in the seventh game to stay alive. Yet Tjen prevailed in the final game, breaking Goldsmith on deuce point to win the match.
