MALIBU, Calif. — The #25 Pepperdine women's tennis team has a rivalry week, of sorts, as the Waves hit the road across Los Angeles to play #23 UCLA and #18 USC.
Pepperdine will take on #23 UCLA at Los Angeles Tennis Center on Wednesday at 1 p.m. before making another crosstown trip to face rival #18 USC at David X. Marks Tennis Center on Saturday at 1 p.m. If available, all live stream, live stat and ticketing links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 11: #25 Pepperdine (4-6) at #23 UCLA (4-2) | Wednesday, Feb. 26 | 1 p.m. PT | Los Angeles Tennis Center | Los Angeles, Calif.
MATCH 12: #25 Pepperdine (4-6) at #18 USC (5-1) | Saturday, March 1| 1 p.m. PT | David X. Marks Tennis Stadium | Los Angeles, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Holding steady in the top-25 Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, the #25 Pepperdine Waves head into this week with plenty of confidence after drubbing California 5-2 at home last Saturday.
The win was a get-right match of sorts for the Waves, whose first month of the dual match season was a gauntlet. Pepperdine played just two of its first 10 matches at home, while the other eight have been out-of-state matches against five top-15 teams. This year's schedule has not been for the faint of heart.
Although the freshman-heavy Waves have taken their early lumps, the team is finding its form heading into the second month of the season. Newcomers like Alexia Harmon and Anastasiia Grechkina have been revelations all season long, while fellow freshmen like Duru Soke and Sebastianna Scilipoti have shown progress after missing matches early in the year.
Harmon is on a team-best seven-match win streak, boasts three ranked wins and has clinched two of Pepperdine's four wins this season. This includes last week's 5-2 win over Cal, when she rebounded from an early deficit in the third-set tiebreaker to beat #106 Berta Passola Folch 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6). The blue-chip recruit from Las Vegas is bound to join teammates #16 Savannah Broadus, #52 Grechkina and #101 Vivian Yang as Pepperdine's nationally ranked singles players.
Grechkina, Harmon's doubles partner, has also been a highlight of the season so far. Last weekend, the freshman from Moscow overpowered #70 Lan Mi of California in a 6-2, 6-0 win that was instrumental in fending off the Golden Bears. With a 7-1 record and her lone loss being to #15 Nicole Khirin of Texas A&M, Grechkina essentially gives the Waves two players who could be at the top of the lineup. She will be needed this week against UCLA and USC's talented lineups.
Winning the doubles point will carry extra importance in both of Pepperdine's matches this week. Collectively, UCLA and USC have won the doubles point in 11 out of the 12 matches they've played, with the lone blemish being UCLA dropping the doubles point against #16 LSU.
To counter them, the Waves will rely on its two nationally ranked doubles teams of #8 Broadus and Yang, plus #39 Grechkina and Harmon. While Broadus and Yang are more accustomed to each other after making the fall NCAA Doubles Championship, the pairing of Grechkina and Harmon is 4-2 after playing together for just three weeks. The team's third, and newest, doubles pairing of Scilipoti and Soke will be called upon at the third position; the duo is fresh off its first win — a 6-4 victory that clinched the doubles point against Cal.
ACROSS THE NET
As three of the premier college tennis programs on the West Coast, the Pepperdine Waves, UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans often cross paths throughout the season. Yet no love will be lost between the programs when the dual match season starts.
Pit any combination of these LA-area rivals against each other, and they will deliver some of the most entertaining matches, year in and year out. While the UCLA-USC rivalry is the most well-known of the matchups, the Waves and Trojans have a heated rivalry lately. Under former head coach Per Nilsson, the Waves won 15 consecutive dual matches against the Trojans.
While Pepperdine owns the recent series over the Trojans, the series against the UCLA Bruins is a different story. The two-time national champions own the all-time series 60-22, yet both teams are dead even in the last 10 matches. On Wednesday, the Waves will look to snap a two-match skid against the Bruins, who won 4-3 in Malibu last year.
Wednesday will be UCLA's first match since the ITA National Team Indoor Championships two weeks ago. Like Pepperdine, UCLA went 1-2 and picked up their lone win at the national indoor championships against one of the hosting teams. Prior to the Bruins' 4-1 win over Illinois, the team lost two close matches to then-No. 12 Oklahoma and then-No. 19 LSU — both of whom are top-12 teams. So far the best win of the season for UCLA is either a 4-2 home win over then-No. 18 California or a sweep against #26 Washington.
Led by a highly decorated group of incoming freshmen, the Bruins rank 22nd in the latest ITA rankings and boast three ranked singles players (#28 Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer, #42 Kate Fakih and #49 Elise Wagle) plus two top-15 doubles teams. After making the NCAA final last fall, #4 Olivia Center and Fakih look like the real deal. However, the UCLA freshmen play at the second spot in the doubles lineup, because the Bruins have the luxury of putting veterans #13 Kimmi Hance and Wagle atop the lineup. Remarkably, the Bruins have three teams with at least seven wins over ranked opponents (the third being #59 Ahmani Guichard and Lutkemeyer).
In singles, Fakih has the hot hand, having a 5-0 record this spring while playing in the middle of the lineup. Hance will likely face off against Broadus atop the singles lineup for their third-ever meeting; the UCLA senior beat Broadus during her freshman year, but Broadus returned the favor as a sophomore. Wednesday will be a test for the bottom of UCLA's lineup, who will need either Guichard or Fernandez to counter Harmon and Soke.
As for the USC Trojans, Saturday's match will bring plenty of drama.
Saturday is a rematch of last year's Super Regional match: a 4-0 Pepperdine sweep that required a massive comeback from Lisa Zaar and Anna Campana in a tiebreaker to clinch the doubles point, which effectively sealed the match. In a bizarre twist of fate, during that match current Pepperdine interim head coach Tassilo Schmid was on the sidelines coaching with former Pepperdine assistant Pete Billingham, who is now an assistant at USC. Only seven players (two Waves and five Trojans) return from last year's Super Regional.
Despite losing some of its top players from last year, #18 USC appears to be a deeper team than it was last year. Led by senior #43 Grace Piper and junior #53 Emma Charney, USC has four nationally ranked players and a top-10 doubles team in #9 Piper and Lily Fairclough that made the NCAA doubles round of 16. Charney rides a four-match win streak at the top half of the lineup, while freshman Jana Hossam has won four of her last five splitting time at the fourth and fifth positions. Undoubtedly, this group of Trojans will want to end Pepperdine's win streak on Saturday.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Waves travel north to wrap up the season series with California on Thursday, March 6. First serve is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
