MALIBU, Calif. — Playing one final tune-up match before the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championships, the #15 Pepperdine women's tennis team travels to Arizona State at 11 a.m. PT this Saturday.
Saturday will be a rematch of the Waves' 2024 second-round NCAA Tournament match, which saw Pepperdine beat the Sun Devils 4-1 after losing the doubles point. It will also double as the fourth consecutive match against a Power-4 opponent and the third road match for the Waves.
The match will not be live-streamed, but live stat links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 4: #15 Pepperdine (1-2) vs. Arizona State (2-2) | Saturday, Feb. 1 | 11 a.m. PT | Whiteman Tennis Center | Tempe, Ariz.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Looking to win back-to-back matches against teams from the Grand Canyon State, the #15 Pepperdine Waves heads to Tempe after a memorable ITA Kickoff Weekend win at home against Arizona last Saturday.
The Waves' 4-1 win over the Arizona Wildcats featured plenty of firsts. In Pepperdine's home opener, the Waves gave interim head coach Tassilo Schmid his first win as a head coach and saw freshman Anastasiia Grechkina not only clinch her first collegiate match, but also pick up her first win over a ranked opponent.
Grechkina's three-set win over #74 Midori Castillo of Arizona earned the freshman her first-ever West Coast Conference Singles Player of the Week award. The Moscow, Russia native leads the team with a perfect 3-0 record while playing in the top half of the Waves' singles lineup, which features five ranked players: #13 Savannah Broadus, #61 Vivian Yang, #90 Liam Oved, #91 Duru Soke and #112 Alexia Harmon.
So far, Pepperdine has won the doubles point twice thanks to the aforementioned #14 Broadus and Yang, who have posted a 2-1 record — all against ranked opponents. Oved and Harmon give Pepperdine a second ranked doubles team; the duo is #101 in the nation, but is searching for their first win of the spring season.
Pepperdine has a 14-8 advantage in the all-time series against the Sun Devils and has won the last five consecutive matches. But those matches were nailbiters: Three of the last four wins were 4-3 results.
ACROSS THE NET
Coming off an 0-2 showing at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, the Arizona State Sun Devils look to bounce back against the Waves.
Under first-year head coach Jamea Jackson, who took over for longtime head coach Sheila McIerney this year, ASU has a 2-2 record with a young but talented team. The squad boasts a top-25 player in #24 Emilija Tverijonaite, plus #47 Sara Svetac and #98 Ada Piestrzynska. Tverijonaite and Svetac are the only holdovers from last year's NCAA Tournament team and, like Pepperdine, the Sun Devils are a young team. Patricija Spaka is the lone upperclassman on an eight-woman roster that features four sophomores and three freshmen.
The doubles point has been ASU's strong suit thus far; the Sun Devils are a combined 8-1 in doubles action with two different unbeaten teams. Spaka and Lily Taylor are a perfect 4-0 atop the doubles lineup, but they haven't faced a ranked team yet.
So far, freshman Karin Altori leads the Sun Devils with a 3-1 singles record in dual matches while playing mostly at the fifth position. Despite having a 12-2 record and qualifying for the NCAA Singles Championship during the fall season, Tverijonaite has gone 2-2 in dual match play with all of her matches being straight-set results. She and Svetac, who has a 2-2 record this spring, have split time atop the lineup.
WHAT'S NEXT
Pepperdine heads to Evanston, Ill. for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships, held from Feb. 7-11. The Waves' first-round opponent will be announced next Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 9 a.m. PT.
