INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Rallying in the third-place match of the 2025 UTR Sports Collegiate Championships, the No. 28 Pepperdine Waves took down No. 26 Princeton 4-2 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday afternoon.
The Waves (10-6) saw its highly-touted freshman class play like veterans to upset the Tigers (16-6). After dropping the doubles point, Pepperdine responded with singles wins from Edward Winter, Lasse Poertner and David Fix before Aleksa Pisaric clinched the match with his three-set win at the fifth position.
In doubles, Pepperdine got off to a strong start with Pisaric and Poertner's thorough 6-1 beatdown of Landon Ardila and Aleksandar Mitric on court three. The Waves took a double-break lead before the Tigers got on the board, then the Waves eventually broke the Princeton duo for the 6-1 win in a quick, 22-minute match. Unfortunately for Pepperdine, the Tigers retaliated with a 6-3 win on court two before their No. 62 ranked team of Filippos Astreinidis and Paul Inchauspe edged out Edward and Hugh Winter in a tiebreak on court one.
But the Waves were undeterred heading into singles play. Resolved to not leave Indian Wells empty handed, four Waves won their first sets — and two were blowouts.
On court one, No. 69 Edward Winter took an early double-break lead against No. 33 Paul Inchauspe at the top line. Winter, who went 2-0 in Indian Wells, looked the part against Inchauspe and blazed through his first set 6-1 before taking another big lead to start the second set. Serving up 4-1, Winter's match came to a premature end when Inchauspe retired due to injury.
With the Waves on the board, Princeton responded with a straight-set win on court two. Yet the Tiger's lead was short-lived thanks to the efforts of Lasse Poertner at the fourth position.
Continuing his streak of dominant play in Indian Wells, Poertner put up a 6-0 first-set bagel against Ellis Short. In the second set, Short broke Poertner in the third game for a 2-1 lead, yet Poertner broke back in the fourth game to put the match back on serve. From there, Poertner powered through the rest of the match, winning four-consecutive games before breaking Short for the match in his 6-0, 6-2 victory.
Although the score remained tied at 2-2 for over an hour, the Waves battled back with two more three-set victories at the bottom of the lineup.
Playing side-by-side in the third set, freshmen David Fix and Aleksa Pisaric answered the call. After losing a close second set to Aleksandar Mitric on court six, Fix left nothing to chance by taking a double-break lead in the third set. Although Mitric broke back and consolidated the break to make the score 4-2, Fix, the Pepperdine freshman held serve before breaking Mitric for the match in his 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory.
That win put Princeton on the ropes.
Moments later on court five, Pisaric capped off a thrilling third set, which featured several deuce point wins, strong serves and flashes of high-level athleticism from the Serbian freshman. After losing his first set 6-4 to Evan Wen, Pisaric pushed his match to a third set with a 6-2 second-set win that helped Pepperdine stay in the fight.
Pisaric broke through in the fifth game by breaking Wen on deuce point and then consolidated the break for a 4-2 lead — right as Fix took a big lead over on court six. Wen was broken on a double-fault in the seventh game, giving Pisaric an opportunity to serve out the match.
Despite falling behind 30-40, Pisaric fought off a break point to bring up deciding point. Serving from the ad side, Pisaric made his first serve and charged to the net to hit a backhand slice to Wen, hit the brakes, then backpedaled for an overhead winner that sent the Pepperdine sideline into a frenzy.
Pepperdine returns to Malibu to take on defending NCAA Singles Champion Michael Zheng and the No. 7 Columbia under the lights on Thursday, March 20 at 7 p.m. — which was originally scheduled for Friday, March 21. All schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
RESULTS
Singles
1. #69 Edward Winter (PEPP) def. #33 Paul Inchauspe (PRIN) 6-1, 4-1, retired
2. #59 Top Nidunjianzan (PRIN) def. #47 Maxi Homberg (PEPP) 6-0, 6-0
3. Linus Carlsson Halldin (PEPP) vs. Landon Ardila (PRIN) 6-4, 6-7 (3), 3-3 unfinished
4. Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. Ellis Short (PRIN) 6-0, 6-2
5. Aleksa Pisaric (PEPP) def. Evan Wen (PRIN) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
6. David Fix (PEPP) def. Aleksandar Mitric (PRIN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Order of finish: 2,1,4,6,5*
Doubles
1. #62 Filippos Astreinidis/Paul Inchauspe (PRIN) def. Edward Winter/Hugh Winter (PEPP) 7-6 (3)
2. Top Nidunjianzan/Ellis Short (PRIN) def. #72 Linus Carlsson Halldin/Maxi Homberg (PEPP) 6-3
3. Aleksa Pisaric/Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. Landon Ardila/Aleksandar Mitric (PRIN) 6-1
Order of finish: 3,2,1*
