Pepperdine University
Arizona
Pepperdine Hosts Arizona and Georgia Tech in the ITA Kickoff Weekend
1/23/2025 2:53:00 PM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. — Hosting the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend for the ninth consecutive season, the #16 Pepperdine women's tennis team takes on either Arizona or Georgia Tech on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Admission to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is free to the public. Saturday's match and all home matches will be livestreamed for free via PlaySight. All pertinent links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
This year's ITA Kickoff weekend will look different in Malibu, as #24 Florida State dropped out of the Malibu Regional due to inclement weather in the Tallahassee area on Thursday. Arizona and Georgia Tech will play each other Friday at 1 p.m. for a chance to face #16 Pepperdine in the championship match, which takes place Saturday at 1 p.m.
Should the Waves win Saturday, they will punch their tickets to Illinois for the team's ninth-consecutive ITA National Team Indoor Championships appearance. This year, the tournament will be hosted at Northwestern and the University of Illinois from Feb. 7-11. Final match locations for the tournament will be determined on Jan. 27.
MATCH 3: #16 Pepperdine (0-2) vs. Arizona (4-0)/Georgia Tech (3-1) | Saturday, Jan. 25 | 1 p.m. PT | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Malibu, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
After playing indoor matches at #7 Duke and #10 NC State last week, the Tassilo Schmid-led Pepperdine Waves will make their home debut this weekend.
Although Pepperdine dropped both road matches last week, a bright spot from the road swing was Anastasiia Grechkina, who went 2-0 with straight-set wins playing in the middle of the lineup. The freshman from Moscow, Russia was the first Wave off the court in the team's 4-3 loss to then-No. 11 Duke with her 6-3, 6-2 win over Ellie Coleman, who had a hard time handling the freshmen's aggressive groundstrokes. Grechkina capped off the road trip with a straight-set win over NC State's Kristina Paskauskas at the third position. She is the only Wave with multiple singles wins this spring.
In doubles, Pepperdine's ranked team of #14 Savannah Broadus and Vivian Yang upset #10 Coleman and Irina Balus of Duke, which earned the duo West Coast Conference Doubles Team of the Week honors. The Waves' top doubles team will face two moreÂ
This weekend marks the beginning of the final chapter for #13 Savannah Broadus will make her final home debut at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. The five-time All-American goes into this weekend with 114 career singles victories, which is two wins behind Waves legend and former No. 1 Ashley Lahey, who ranks third all-time at Pepperdine with 116 wins.
Interestingly enough, this weekend will be the first time Broadus has played singles on court one at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. However, the senior only knows success playing in Malibu: The Waves are 32-2 at home during Broadus' career.
So far, three Waves have notched singles wins this spring. The aforementioned #13 Broadus won her season debut at Duke, while #61 Yang beat NC State's Gabriella Broadfoot in three sets last Sunday.
ACROSS THE NET
This year at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, Power-4 teams in Arizona and Georgia Tech will square off for the right to play the Waves in the championship match. Although both teams are unranked, the Wildcats and Yellow Jackets earned at-large NCAA Tournament berths a year ago. Both teams will likely be ranked later in the season, giving Pepperdine opportunities against quality competition.
Riding high with a perfect 4-0 record, Arizona will play its first match away from Tucson this weekend. Led by ranked players in former Cal State Fullerton star #50 Josie Usereau and senior #74 Midori Castillo-Meza, the Wildcats have gone 20-2 collectively in singles action. Arizona's lone ranked team, #52 Castillo-Meza and Martyna Ostrzygalo, have only gone 1-0 in dual match play so far.
The Wildcats swept Pepperdine rival LMU, UC San Diego and Cal Poly with little resistance before winning a 5-2 decision against Big Sky Champion Northern Arizona this past Monday. This weekend will be Arizona's first true test.
Georgia Tech, meanwhile, comes into this weekend with a 2-1 record with its lone loss coming against the defending national runner-up #1 Georgia. The Yellow Jackets rebounded from that 4-0 sweep with a 3-1 win over Memphis, which saw Georgia Tech win a close doubles point before clinching with Kate Sharabura's three-set win at the third position.
The Yellow Jackets have one ranked doubles team: #54 Alejandra Cruz and Given Roach. Cruz and Taly Licht lead the team with 3-0 records, plus Roach's 2-0 record gives Georgia Tech three undefeated singles players so far. The middle of the lineup has been the team's strength: Georgia Tech is undefeated at the second, fourth and fifth positions, but is .500 or worse everywhere else.
Pepperdine and Georgia Tech are tied 3-3 in the all-time series, while Arizona leads the all-time series 7-4 over the Waves.Â
WHAT'S NEXT
Pepperdine takes a three-match road swing, starting with a match at Arizona State on Feb. 1. All schedule updates can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
