MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine men's tennis team's final opportunity to compete for NCAA Tournament bids is this week at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Conference Masters Championships and the ITA Sectional Championships.
Brothers Edward Winter and Hugh Winter will compete at the ITA Conference Masters, which takes place from Nov. 6-9 at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif. Lasse Poertner and Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida will head north to the ITA Sectionals Championships, hosted by the University of California in Berkeley from Nov. 6-9. If available, all live stream and live stat links will be available on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
At Conference Masters, the four singles semifinalists and three doubles teams (champion, finalist and third place) will earn NCAA Tournament bids. Meanwhile at Sectionals, six singles players (semifinalists, two quarterfinal playoff winners) and three doubles teams (champion, finalist and third place) will earn NCAA Tournament bids.
In an event pitting players from all conferences against each other, the Winter brothers earned the West Coast Conference's singles and doubles bids at the ITA Conference Masters. At No. 16 in the ITA rankings, Edward Winter boasts the best ranking out of any active West Coast Conference player competing in the fall. The No. 24 duo of Edward and Hugh Winter will make their fall debut, as well.
As the highest-ranked singles player in the league, No. 16 Edward Winter will make his collegiate season debut after spending most of his fall season competing in ATP Challenger-level tournaments. Last year, Winter went 14-8 atop the lineup and won five matches against nationally ranked opponents — including a straight-set win over NCAA Singles Champion and No. 1-ranked Michael Zheng of Columbia. Coincidentally, Zheng is the 1-seed in the Conference Masters draw, while Winter is the 2-seed. Receiving a first-round bye, Winter will face the winner between Middle Tennessee's Karim Al-Amin and Dayton's Mikkel Zinder in the second round.
In doubles, No. 24 Edward and Hugh Winter are the 1-seed and will receive a first-round bye. They will face either South Carolina State's team of Mikalai Bankou and Bastian Zamora, or Cornell's duo of Rushil Khosla and Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar in the Round of 16.
Over at the ITA Sectional Championships, Poertner and Ribeiro de Almeida will compete in both singles and doubles. Competing in their maiden event as a doubles pairing, Poertner and Ribeiro de Almeida are the 2-seed in the draw and will face Cal's team of Paris Pouatcha and Bernardo Munk Mesa in the first round.
In singles, No. 90 Ribeiro de Almeida is the 3-seed and will square off against Arizona State's Shu Matsuoka in the first round. As the nation's No. 6 player in the ITA Newcomer Rankings, Ribeiro de Almeida has been as good as advertised this fall. He has a 5-3 record with four of his wins coming in straight sets.
No. 102 Poertner is the 2-seed and will take on Cal's Pouatcha again in the first round. After finishing his freshman season winning his last six matches, the former blue-chip recruit from Germany has taken strides as a sophomore. He has an 8-1record this fall, which includes a stretch of five consecutive wins to kick off the season.
Both Waves are on opposite sides of the bracket, giving Pepperdine a chance for both players to earn NCAA bids at this event.
Although the current format of hosting the NCAA individual championships in the fall is only in its second year, Pepperdine has been successful at ITA Sectionals. Last year, Maxi Homberg won the ITA West Sectional en route to becoming an All-American at NCAAs.
Should any Wave earn an NCAA bid, the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be held at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla. from Nov. 18-23.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE MEN'S TENNIS
Pepperdine men's tennis has a longstanding tradition of success, highlighted by an NCAA Championship in 2006, which came 54 years after its first NAIA Championship in 1952. Robbie Weiss recorded the program's first NCAA singles championship in 1988 after the program saw doubles national championships in 1984 and 1985. 44-time WCC Champions, Pepperdine has reached 40 NCAA Tournaments and six NCAA Regionals in its history with 53 total All-Americans.
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