Broadus, Tjen and Zaar Earn NCAA Singles and Doubles Berths
4/30/2024 6:06:00 PM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. — Savannah Broadus, Janice Tjen and Lisa Zaar are running it back.
For the second consecutive year, the Pepperdine women's tennis trio of Broadus, Tjen and Zaar all earned berths in the NCAA Singles Championship, while Broadus and Tjen will be the 2-seed in the NCAA Doubles Championship, as announced by the NCAA on Tuesday. By earning top-16 seeds in singles, Broadus and Zaar garnered All-American honors, while Broadus and Tjen's 2-seed in doubles made them the first doubles team in Pepperdine women's tennis history to be three-time All-Americans.
The NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship will take place from May 20-25 in Stillwater, Okla. following the NCAA team championships on May 19. Tournament draws and match times will be announced at a later date.
Broadus earned the West Coast Conference's automatic qualifier in singles, while Tjen and Zaar were at-large selections. Since both Broadus and Zaar earned 9-16 seeds in the draw, both players also earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American status. This is Zaar's second All-American singles honor of her career, whereas this year marks the first time Broadus has earned All-American distinction in singles.
Putting together one of the best doubles careers in Pepperdine history, Broadus and Tjen have a 28-3 overall record and have remained in the top four of the ITA's doubles rankings throughout the year. The duo opened the spring season with 15 consecutive wins — nine of which were against ranked teams — and were ranked as high as second in the ITA polls. In the WCC, Broadus and Tjen were essentially shoo-ins for the WCC Doubles Team of the Week honor, which they won seven of the 15 weeks the conference gave out weekly awards.Â
Broadus and Tjen are national title contenders for a reason. This spring, the duo had nine wins over other teams in the NCAA doubles field and one win over another top-four seed: a 7-5 win over 3-seed Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar. The duo will try to improve over their second-round showing from last year.Â
The 2024 WCC Player of the Year, Broadus has put together yet another impressive season in what has been a memorable Pepperdine career. She has a 26-10 record in singles this season — including a 9-8 record against nationally ranked opponents — and has a six-match win streak heading into the postseason. Broadus has held down the second and third positions in Pepperdine's lineup, where she has been a consistent straight-set winner and a match-clincher for the Waves this year. Earlier this spring, Broadus recorded a three-set upset win over #2 Ange Oby Kajuru of Oklahoma State for her best singles win of her collegiate career — surpassing her earlier win over #5 Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina from the ITA All-American Tournament. Broadus will look to improve on her showing from last year, in which she reached the second round before falling to Connie Ma of Stanford in straight sets.
Making the NCAA Singles Tournament for the third time in her career and the second time as a Wave, Tjen has a 21-5 record this season and an impressive 17-2 mark in dual match play. The senior from Jakarta, Indonesia moved up to Pepperdine's top spot in the singles lineup thanks to a 10-match win streak in the middle of the season. Tjen earned All-WCC First Team honors in singles this season and is currently ranked #42 in the ITA singles polls. She will look to improve on last season's run in the singles tournament, which was cut short with a three-set loss to Vanderbilt's Celia Belle-Mohr in the opening round.
Becoming the third player under head coach Per Nilsson to make the NCAA Singles Championship at least three times, Zaar has a 16-5 record this spring and an 11-3 record. Zaar began dual match play winning five of her first six singles matches and has remained consistent ever since. She has gone 9-5 against nationally ranked opponents — five of which were over top-25 singles players. Her best run in the NCAA Singles Championship was a quarterfinal appearance as a junior in 2021, where she lost to Fiona Crawley of North Carolina in straight sets.
Broadus, Tjen, Zaar and the #6 Waves will embark on Pepperdine's 40th NCAA appearance at home this Friday at 1 p.m. against SIUE.
