MALIBU, Calif. — Making its return home after playing six straight matches on the road, the #16 Pepperdine women's tennis team will host #18 California on Saturday at noon.
Saturday's match against the Golden Bears is Pepperdine's second home match of the year. As always, admission to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is free to the public, and the match will be livestreamed via PlaySight. All live stream and live stat links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 10: #16 Pepperdine (3-6) vs. #18 California (1-2) | Saturday, Feb. 22 | Noon PT | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Malibu, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
This week at home will be a welcome reprieve for the Waves, who were frequent fliers for the first month of the season.
Such is life at a mid-major like Pepperdine, which has just five more home matches left on the schedule. Pepperdine has played its last six matches on the road — including trips to three different states — and three were against top-25 teams. So far, the Waves are just one of three top-25 teams (including LSU and California, coincidentally) to have played less than two home matches. Catch them while you can.
Saturday's match will be the sixth top-25 opponent Pepperdine faces this year. Although the 3-6 record doesn't show it, Pepperdine has gained invaluable experience against some of the nation's best college tennis programs. The freshman-heavy roster — which gained a sixth newcomer in Sebastianna Scilipoti making her debut last week — has grown up fast.
For the most part, the new Waves have established themselves on the roster. Freshman and reigning West Coast Conference Player of the Week Alexia Harmon leads the team with a six-match win while playing primarily at the fifth position. The former blue-chip recruit has a team-best six singles wins this season and, coincidentally, her doubles partner Anastasiia Grechkina is the other Wave with six dual match wins.
Harmon and Grechkina have been a revelation in doubles, having gone 4-1 with two nationally ranked wins and a pair of WCC Doubles Team of the Week awards over the last two weeks. Not only that, they play behind a top-10 team in #7 Savannah Broadus and Vivian Yang, who have gone through a slight slump after ITA Indoors. The third doubles spot has been a question mark lately, but Duru Soke and Scilipoti recently occupied the third rung on the ladder in Pepperdine's matches last week.
Up until last Sunday's match at #2 Texas A&M, the Waves had multiple nationally ranked players on win streaks. Five-time All-American #16 Savannah Broadus is finding her form at the first position, while #80 Vivian Yang has held down the third position and #108 Soke has been an admirable sixth singles player with her ability to grind out three-set matches. Harmon was the only Wave to go 2-0 at Rice and #2 Texas A&M last week, and she's coming off a straight-set drubbing of #125 Daria Smetannikov of the Aggies.
As two consistent top-25 programs in California, the Waves and Golden Bears share a lengthy history. California leads the all-time series 14-37, but the Waves own a 7-3 advantage in the last 10 meetings. If recent history is any indication of what happens Saturday, the match will either be a 4-3 California win or a Pepperdine blowout. In the six matchups between the two teams with Broadus on the roster, there have been as many 4-3 Cal wins (three) as Pepperdine wins of two points or more (three).
ACROSS THE NET
While most of the nation's top-25 teams have close to 10 matches under their belts, the #18 California Golden Bears are an exception. With just a 1-2 record, this Cal team will return to the court this week after a 19-day break since their last result — a 4-2 loss at #11 UCLA. But the college tennis world-at-large will know more about this Cal roster after playing at #15 USC and Pepperdine this weekend.
But this Cal roster isn't new to college tennis. With six upperclassmen and five seniors, the Golden Bears are an experienced group looking to improve on its Super Regional appearance a year ago.
Back in the fall, the Golden Bears sent four individuals (three singles players, one doubles team) to the NCAA individual championships, which generated some buzz about what this program could accomplish this year. In the end, senior Katja Wiersholm became an All-American, falling to eventual national runner-up DJ Bennett of Auburn, and four Bears established themselves as nationally ranked players.
While the Golden Bears don't have a bona fide, truly elite star, the singles lineup has three top-100 players and just one freshman in the lineup. Cal is a deep, experienced team that will challenge opponents across the lineup. Although injuries hampered her early career, a healthy #42 Katja Wiersholm leads the way, while #50 Lan Mi, #67 Mao Mushika and #112 Berta Passola Folch bolster the middle of the singles lineup.
Although the Golden Bears lost half of their top doubles team from last year — the same one that fell to Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus in a memorable opening-round NCAA doubles match — the squad has four ranked doubles teams. Versatility is the name of the game: Almost any combination of Jessica Alsola, Mushika and Wiersholm results in a nationally ranked team.
Cal's top team of #13 Mushika and Wiersholm is just 1-0, but the one win is a big one: The duo upset national runner-up Olivia Center and Kate Fakih 6-3 in LA earlier this month.
All told, California returns six of seven players from the team that went 1-2 against the Waves in three separate meetings a year ago. The Waves beat the Golden Bears indoors and then at Malibu — the latter of which was a 6-1 romp with three straight-set Pepperdine wins.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Waves will head across town next Wednesday, Feb. 26 to take on #11 UCLA. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m.
