MALIBU, Calif. — Kicking off a stretch of three matches in five days, the Pepperdine men's tennis team will head to Dallas to take on the UT Arlington Mavericks in an indoor match on Wednesday at 11 a.m. PT.
The match was originally scheduled outdoors, but freezing weather across north Texas sent the match indoors. If available, all live stream and live stat links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
From here, the Waves will head to Starkville, Miss. for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend, starting with a match against the #11 Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday. Pepperdine will face either #22 NC State or LSU on Sunday.
MATCH 2: Pepperdine (0-1) at UT Arlington (0-1) | Wednesday, Jan. 22 | 11 a.m. PT | Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex | Dallas, Texas
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Pepperdine is searching for its first win of the 2025 season after dropping a close 4-3 result to the visiting UC Irvine Anteaters last Saturday.
Despite playing with four freshmen in the lineup against the Anteaters, the Waves took the doubles point with a convincing, 6-3 win from Aleksa Pisaric and Lasse Poertner in their collegiate debuts. Returners Maxi Homberg and Linus Carlsson Halldin wound up clinching the doubles point with a 6-4 win against UC Irvine's experienced duo of Andy Nguyen and Noah Zamora.
In singles play, Pepperdine saw Hugh Winter earn his first collegiate singles win at the fifth position with a 6-2, 6-4 win. But one could argue the highlight of the match was #36 Homberg's three-set win over #31 Noah Zamora, which not only was the highest-ranked singles win of Homberg's career, but also gave Homberg West Coast Conference Singles Player of the Week honors.
ACROSS THE NET
As the second of 16 NCAA Tournament teams on Pepperdine's schedule, the UT Arlington Mavericks will be another formidable mid-major foe for the Waves. The Mavericks are back-to-back Western Athletic Conference tournament and regular-season champions and have posted three consecutive winning seasons under longtime head coach Diego Benitez.
Despite losing its top three players from last year's NCAA Tournament team, UT Arlington will rely on Tennessee State transfer Daniel Pérez-Caraballo and sophomore Andres Medus to step up in the lineup. Pérez-Caraballo led the team with seven singles wins this past fall, while Medus was the lone Maverick to qualify for the ITA Conference Masters.
The Mavericks opened their season with a 4-0 road loss to #10 Oklahoma this past Sunday. The top of the Sooners' lineup made quick work of UTA; all three completed singles matches were straight-set results. Pedro Sasso, Meethre Barot and Medus — all returners from last season — played at the top three singles positions for the Mavericks in the loss, while Sasso and Barot nearly forced a tiebreaker at the first doubles position.
WHAT'S NEXT
Pepperdine travels further east to Starkville, Miss. for the ITA Kickoff Weekend against #11 Mississippi State, starting this Saturday. From there, the Waves will face either #22 NC State or LSU on Sunday. All schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
