Pepperdine University
Portland
#19 Waves Begin WCC Play Against Pilots
3/20/2025 2:46:00 PM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. — Kicking off West Coast Conference play, the defending conference champions No. 19 Pepperdine Waves host the Portland Pilots on Sunday, March 23 at noon.
Admission to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is free to the public, and the match will be livestreamed for free via PlaySight. If available, all live stream and live stat links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.Â
Winners of the last 12 regular-season conference titles, the Waves look to extend their streak of 80 consecutive conference dual matches — a streak that dates back to 2015. Pepperdine was picked to defend its WCC title earlier this year.
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MATCH 15: #19Â Pepperdine (6-8) vs. Portland (5-5) | Sunday, March 23 | Noon | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Malibu, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
After a 10-day break away from dual match action, the defending WCC champions will be back in action at home, where they have been incredibly successful in conference play over the last decade.
Despite a new head coach in interim Tassilo Schmid and six newcomers, the Waves are the heavy favorites to repeat as WCC champions this season. The Waves were picked to win the league this year ahead of second-place San Diego, plus Pepperdine has the most talented roster from top to bottom in the league.
However, this spring has had its ups and downs for the Waves, which returned just two players from last year's NCAA Final Four team. Pepperdine's 6-8 record might be deceptive, as the Waves faced seven teams ranked in the current Intercollegiate Tennis Association top-25 rankings. All eight of Pepperdine's losses have been against top-40 teams, so saying the squad is "battle tested" might be an understatement.
Nevertheless, the Waves got back on track last week with a 5-2 road win against No. 55 UC Santa Barbara. Pepperdine took the doubles point and got straight-set wins from No. 14 Savannah Broadus, Sebastianna Scilipoti and Alexia Harmon before they tacked on another point with Vivian Yang's three-set win in the final singles match of the afternoon.Â
Pepperdine's top two players of the aforementioned No. 14 Broadus and No. 68 Anastasiia Grechkina, who are also two of the WCC's top three singles players in the national rankings. So far, Pepperdine freshmen — and doubles partners — Grechkina and Harmon lead the team with eight dual match wins this season, while Yang is close behind with seven.
In doubles, No. 8 Broadus and Yang lead the charge with an 11-4 record this season, including a 4-2 record against ranked opponents. At the second position, No. 57 Grechkina and Harmon plus the Waves' third position pairing of Duru Söke and Scilipoiti both carry two-match win streaks heading into this weekend.
ACROSS THE NET
Picked to finish sixth in the WCC Preseason Poll, the Portland Pilots begin WCC play with three consecutive road matches against three of the top four teams in the league. Prior to playing Pepperdine, the Pilots will play at No. 51 San Diego and LMU on Friday and Saturday, respectively. It'll be a gauntlet.
Head coach Filip Zivkovic's squad has gone 5-5 this year, however, three of those losses were to Power-4 teams Washington, Oregon and Texas Tech. The Pilots have faced mostly regional competition since their difficult start to the season, and they rode a five-match win streak in late February to get above .500. Now they'll look to snap a two-match skid heading into WCC play.
A WCC Second Team selection from a year ago, senior Sally Pethybridge leads the Pilots at the top of the singles ladder. However, sophomore Nadine Arbaizar Martinez boasts a team-high seven dual-match wins while playing at the bottom half of the lineup. She won WCC Player of the Week earlier this season for going 2-0 in wins against Eastern Washington and Seattle. Portland has no nationally ranked singles players or doubles teams.
Portland has won the doubles point exactly five times out of its 10 matches, all while fielding nine different combinations in dual match action. The Pilots' top team of Pethybridge and Alaia Rubio Perez leads the squad with a 7-2 record, which includes one ranked win.
Portland has never beaten Pepperdine. The last time the Pilots won a singles match in Malibu was 2013 when Pepperdine beat Portland 5-2 on the Waves' senior day.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Waves have one week off before heading across town to face PCH Cup rival LMU on Sunday, March 30 at 2 p.m. All pertinent information can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
Players Mentioned
