MALIBU, Calif. — During the final week of the fall college tennis season, junior Edward Winter of the Pepperdine men's tennis team qualified for the NCAA Singles Championships at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Conference Masters Championships.
Reaching the semifinals of the ITA Conference Masters, Winter joins teammate Maxi Homberg as the only Waves to qualify for NCAAs under the current fall format. And by making his second NCAA individual appearance, Winter is the second player under Pepperdine Director of Tennis Adam Schaechterle to represent Pepperdine at multiple NCAA Singles Championships, joining Daniel De Jonge.
"Ed has trained and competed like a captain all fall," Schaechterle said. "He has produced consistent success at the pro level and could have decided to skip the individual NCAAs. Instead, he sought out the pressure of qualifying and representing Pepperdine. His attitude is special. We are excited to see him do some damage in Orlando."
Most impressively, Winter needed just two matches to punch his ticket to Florida.
After playing in several pro events this fall, the No. 16 Winter made his collegiate debut during the ITA Conference Masters Championships, held in San Diego at Barnes Tennis Center last Thursday. The Australian made the most of it. Needing just two wins to punch his ticket to NCAAs, Winter beat both opponents in straight sets. Receiving a first-round bye, Winter opened the tournament by beating Middle Tennessee State's Karim Al-Amin 6-3, 6-4, setting up a quarterfinal match with Memphis' Maxime Dubouch.
Winter won his first set in convincing fashion, taking the first set 6-2 over the Memphis Frenchman. However in the second set, Dubouch raised his level, breaking Winter for the first time in the third game before Winter got the break back in the fourth. Unlike the first set, most of the games in the second set were close affairs, forcing both players to win several high-pressure deuce points to hold serve.
Unafraid to advance to the net, the Pepperdine junior found most of his success working his way up the court and hitting pinpoint, drop volleys. In his fourth service game, Winter faced his first test. On deuce point, Winter whipped a serve near the center line, then gradually worked his way up to the net, hitting forehand after forehand at Dubouch. With Dubouch pinned in the doubles alley, the rally ended when Dubouch netted a return to make the score 4-3, Winter.
The match was played on serve until Dubouch finally broke through in the ninth game. Winter got to the net with aplomb, overwhelming Dubouch with drop volleys and slice backhands to go up 40-0, yet the Frenchman clawed back to break Winter on a passing shot to go up five games to four. However, Winter got the break back in the tenth game, extending the set into a tiebreak.
Winter found another level in the tiebreak, going up 3-0 and never looking back. Serving to stay alive trailing 6-3, Dubouch netted Winter's return of serve to hand the Pepperdine junior a 6-2, 7-6 (3) straight-set win and a ticket to NCAAs.
Despite Winter's success at Conference Masters, the weekend was bittersweet for the Waves.
Throughout the weekend, Lasse Poertner, Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida and two Pepperdine doubles teams competed at Conference Masters and the ITA West Sectionals. All came up short of earning NCAA bids.
Hours after the elder Winter punched his ticket to NCAAs, he and Hugh Winter fell to Rice's No. 75 Petro Kuzmenok and Santiago Navarro in a superbreaker in the quarterfinals. The No. 24-ranked Winter brothers won the first set 6-4 before the Owls took the second set 6-2 to push the match to a superbreaker. Eventually, the Owls won out 10-8, ending the Winters' fall doubles season.
Up north at the ITA West Sectionals, Poertner and Ribeiro de Almeida's singles seasons came to premature ends in the first round. Then in doubles, the underclassmen paired up and made a run to the semifinals, where they met Santa Clara's unranked duo of Jon Kim and Luca Bluett. In the all-West Coast Conference semifinal, the unseeded Broncos prevailed in a 10-5 superbreaker, becoming the first Santa Clara players to qualify for NCAAs since 2001.
But the Waves had one more opportunity to earn an NCAA bid in a quarterfinal playoff on Sunday morning. Against the 1-seed Stanford team of Alex Chang and Alexander Razeghi, the Waves dropped the first set again and rebounded in the second to push the match to a superbreaker. Unfortunately for Pepperdine, the Waves ran out of gas in the superbreaker. Playing their third superbreaker of the tournament, the Waves fell behind 6-1 en route to losing 4-6, 7-5, 0-1 (10-3).
Winter will make his second NCAA appearance at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla., from Nov. 18-23. All schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
ITA CONFERENCE MASTERS RESULTS
Singles
No. 16 Edward Winter (PEPP) def. Karim Al-Amin (MTSU) 6-3, 6-4
No. 16 Edward Winter (PEPP) def. Maxime Dubouch (MEMPHIS) 6-2. 7-6 (3)
Doubles
No. 24 Edward Winter/Hugh Winter (PEPP) def. Rushil Kholsa/Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (CORNELL) 3-6, 7-6 (4), 1-0 (11-9)
No. 75 Petro Kuzmenok/Santiago Navarro (RICE) def. No. 24 Edward Winter/Hugh Winter (PEPP) 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-8)
ITA SECTIONALS RESULTS
Singles
No. 124 Shu Matsuoka (ASU) def. No. 90 Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP) 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2
Paris Poutacha (CAL) def. No. 102 Lasse Poertner (PEPP) 6-2, 6-4
Doubles
Lasse Poertner/Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP) def. Paris Pouatcha/Bernardo (CAL) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7)
Lasse Poertner/Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP) def. Caden Hasler/TJ Wells (BYU) 7-5, 6-1
Luca Bluett/John Kim (SCU) def. Lasse Poertner/Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP) 6-1, 5-7, 1-0 (10-5)
Alex Chang/Alexander Razeghi (STAN) def. Lasse Poertner/Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP) 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-3)
Consolation Singles Matches
No. 102 Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. Jean-Baptiste Badon (USU) 6-2, 6-2
No. 102 Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. No. 68 Diogo Morais (UCSB) 6-3, 6-4
No. 102 Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. Alexander Watanabe Eriksson (SCU) 7-6 (5), 7-5
Alexander Watanabe Eriksson (SCU) def. No. 90 Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP) 6-3, 2-6, 1-0 (13-11)
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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