MALIBU, Calif. — Returning to California from two matches in Arizona, the #25 Pepperdine men's tennis team will square off against Los Angeles rivals USC and UCLA this weekend.
Due to the rain across Los Angeles County, the Waves' home match against USC initially scheduled for this Friday has been moved to Saturday, Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. From there, the Waves take the short trip to UCLA to face the Bruns on Sunday. Feb. 16 at 1 p.m.
Admission to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is free to the public. All pertinent live stream and live stat links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 9: #25 Pepperdine (5-3) vs. USC (4-3) | Saturday, Feb. 15 | 1 p.m. PT | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Malibu, Calif.
MATCH 10: #25 Pepperdine (5-3) at UCLA (2-4) | Sunday, Feb. 16 | 1 p.m. PT | Los Angeles Tennis Center | Los Angeles, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Entering the second month of the season, the #25 Pepperdine Waves already proved they can beat some of the nation's best teams. Now the goal is proving they belong.
Head coach Adam Schaechterle's squad is coming off splitting a pair of top-25 matches in Arizona, however, the Waves will look to rebound from Sunday's 4-0 sweep against #10 Arizona. Playing against longtime in-city rivals USC and UCLA gives the Waves two more opportunities for quality wins against Power-4 opponents, both of whom are more talented than their records currently indicate.
So far, the story for the Waves has been NCAA qualifiers Edward Winter and #32 Maxi Homberg leading the top of the singles lineup, while a solid freshman class bolsters the fourth through sixth singles positions. Pair that with doubles play that has been promising, albeit at times inconsistent, and the Waves can beat teams in a myriad of ways.
The Waves have three players with four singles wins — all of whom play across the lineup. Sophomore Edward Winter has a 4-2 mark atop the lineup with one ranked win already, and the reigning West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year appears to have avoided a sophomore slump. The Australian has made significant improvements with his serve and on-court movement, plus his backhand continues to be one of the best in college tennis.
Reigning WCC Singles Player of the Week Linus Carlsson Halldin also has a 4-2 record albeit at the third position, where the senior most recently clinched the Waves' 4-3 win at #24 Arizona State. Freshman Aleksa Pisaric rounds out the trio with a 4-3 record from the middle of the lineup, where the first-year has already clinched multiple high-leverage matches for the Waves this year. He carries a three-match win streak heading into this week, which leads the team.
Pisaric is also responsible for some of the Waves' doubles success with fellow freshman Lasse Poertner. Right now, the freshmen lead the team with a 6-1 record playing mostly the third position. The duo's combination of solid serving, returning and groundstrokes has overpowered opponents with plenty of lopsided results. All six of Pisaric and Poertner's wins have been by a break or more.
Going 2-0 against the LA Power-4 teams would be a significant accomplishment. Although the Waves trail the all-time series against USC and UCLA, Pepperdine has had recent success against its in-city rivals. Back in 2022, the Waves beat UCLA 4-1 and upset #8 USC 4-2 in a 24-hour span, which catapulted the Waves into the top-20 rankings.
ACROSS THE NET
With 21 NCAA team titles and 36 individual champions, the USC Trojans are one of the most successful programs in men's college tennis history. Regardless of how successful the Trojans are in any given season, a win over USC will always be significant.
Led by senior #24 Peter Makk, the Trojans look to bounce back after a 7-16 2024 season -— an anomaly by USC's standards. So far, USC has a 4-3 record with results that have been fairly one-sided: They swept UC Irvine, San Diego State and Oklahoma State, but they've taken a 4-0 loss to #10 Arizona and a 4-2 loss to #13 Stanford so far. Save for a 4-3 loss at former Pac-12 foe California, the Trojans haven't played a close, high-stakes match this year.
USC plays a solid doubles point, having won the doubles point in all but one match this year — the aforementioned 4-0 sweep against Arizona. Makk and Tristan Bradley have a 4-1 record atop the doubles lineup, but the Trojans have been successful at the third position with five different teams combining for a 6-1 record. Volodymyr Iakubenko and Oscar Weightman had a 3-0 record at the third position before moving up in the lineup, plus Matteo Morazzi and Nathan Trouve have amassed a 4-2 record at both the second and third positions. The doubles point could come down to how USC's third team fares against Pepperdine freshmen Aleksa Pisaric and Lasse Poertner.
USC's longtime rivals, the UCLA Bruins, come into this weekend with a 2-4 record that doesn't reflect the talent on the lineup. The Bruins have gone 0-3 against top-25 teams this season (#16 San Diego, #13 Texas A&M and #13 Stanford) but have played five tournament teams.
But UCLA is better than its record indicates. It has three ranked singles players in #12 Spencer Johnson, #49 Rudy Quan, #63 Emon van Loben Sels — two of whom qualified for the NCAA Singles Championships last fall — and a top-20 doubles team in #17 Aadarsh Tripathi and Alexander Hoogmartens. However, they haven't played at full strength lately, as 2024 French Open boys singles champion Kaylan Bigun hasn't seen the court since their Georgia match on Jan. 26.
The path for Pepperdine to beat UCLA on the road for the first time in 25 years begins with the doubles point. Aside from Tripathi and Hoogmartens, the Bruins have struggled in doubles play: Over the last three matches, the second and third positions have gone 0-6.
Despite the singles talent, UCLA's top singles players are looking to get out of slumps this week. NCAA singles qualifier Emon van Loben Sels carries a team-best two-match win streak heading into this weekend playing at the middle of the lineup. Johnson has faced several of the nation's toughest players atop the lineup, giving him just a 2-3 record to show for his efforts. Hoogmartens currently leads the team with four singles wins playing primarily at the fifth position, but Quan and Tripathi aren't far behind with three wins apiece at the second and sixth positions, respectively.
WHAT'S NEXT
Pepperdine will take nearly a week off before visiting #2 TCU, the defending national champions, on Sun. Feb. 23 at 11 a.m. PT. All schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
