MALIBU, Calif. — Capping off an impressive freshman campaign, Pepperdine men's tennis player Edward Winter was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southwest Regional Rookie of the Year on Wednesday.
Winter is the third Wave all-time and the second player under head coach Adam Schaechterle to earn this award, joining Sebastian Fanselow (2010) and Daniel De Jonge (2020).
Few players, much less freshmen, were tested like Winter this season. Heading into the season as one of the ITA's Top 10 Newcomers, Winter lived up to expectations and was Pepperdine's best singles player. The freshman from Adelaide, Australia played at the first position in every dual match he appeared in, faced off against 18 ranked opponents and had six wins over ranked foes. Throughout the year, he was a top-60 singles player and was ranked as high as 23rd in the ITA singles polls.
The 2024 West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year made a splash right away in the spring. In his first full month of the spring season, Winter recorded top-20 wins over #12 Ronnie Hohmann III of Michigan State and #20 Pablo Masjuan of UC Santa Barbara — both of whom made the NCAA Singles Championship draw. All told, Winter was a first-team all-conference singles and a second-team all-conference doubles selection, plus he earned the WCC Singles Player of the Week twice and the WCC Doubles Team of the Week award once.
Towards the end of the season, Winter earned the first signature moment of his college career with a come-from-behind, three-set victory over Pacific's Peter Alam that not only clinched the match, but also helped the Waves win a share of the WCC regular-season title. Winter helped lead the Waves to their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, where they faced #24 Auburn in the first round of the Tucson Regional.
In May, Winter earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Singles Tournament, becoming the second Wave under Schaechterle to compete in the singles postseason draw. Winter fell to eventual All-American Shunsuke Mitsui of Tennessee in the first round.
