MALIBU, Calif. — Entering the penultimate week of West Coast Conference play, the No. 23 Pepperdine men's tennis team heads to the Pacific Northwest to take on Gonzaga and Portland this weekend.
The Waves will take on Gonzaga on Saturday at 10 a.m. before they face the Portland Pilots on Sunday at 10 a.m. If available, all live stream and live stat links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 21: #23 Pepperdine (12-8, 2-1 WCC) vs. Gonzaga (9-8, 1-3 WCC) | Saturday, April 12 | 10 a.m. PT | Stevens Center | Spokane, Wash.
MATCH 22: #23 Pepperdine (12-8, 2-1 WCC) vs. Portland (7-7, 1-3 WCC) | Sunday, April 13 | 10 a.m. PT | Louisiana-Pacific Tennis Center | Portland, Ore.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Returning to West Coast Conference play after a 4-3 loss to No. 43 UC Santa Barbara, the No. 26 Pepperdine Waves will use this weekend as one final tuneup before the most consequential match of the year. Next week the Waves host the No. 7 San Diego Toreros, on April 18 at 2 p.m. for what could be the first of two meetings between the WCC rivals.
Earlier this week, the Waves took the doubles point and got singles wins from David Fix and Hugh Winter before UC Santa Barbara won at the top four singles positions to steal the match. Playing with a clean slate this weekend, the Waves will look to get back to their winning ways.
Led by sophomore Edward Winter atop the singles ladder — who is ranked a career-high 19th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings — the Waves are essentially a lock for the NCAA Tournament thanks to its aggressive non-conference schedule and two top-10 wins.
In singles, Fix is the lone Wave with a multi-match win streak heading into this weekend. One of the members of Pepperdine's No. 2 recruiting class in the nation, Fix has steadily found his footing in college tennis at the sixth position, yet he moved up to the fifth position in his last two matches.
Despite playing with two new doubles pairings lately, the Waves have won the doubles point in six of their last 10 matches. The Winter brothers are the team's lone nationally ranked pairing, having moved up to 73rd in the ITA rankings earlier this week. Aleksa Pisaric and Lasse Poertner moved up to the second position earlier this week and might stay there for this weekend. They lead the team with a 12-3 record in dual-match play.
ACROSS THE NET
Tied with 1-3 records in the West Coast Conference standings, the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Portland Pilots are fighting for the sixth and final spot in the WCC Tournament. Wins might be difficult to come by for both squads, as they will host Pepperdine and their travel partners, the No. 7 San Diego Toreros, in the most difficult week of conference play.
Picked to finish seventh in the WCC preseason polls, the Bulldogs are overperforming early-season expectations. However, Gonzaga is on a three-match losing skid against the likes of Pacific, Saint Mary's and LMU heading into this weekend; the Bulldogs might need a little help from the rest of the league if they want to make their first WCC Tournament appearance since 2022.
Led by junior Giovanni Branchetti atop the singles lineup, Gonzaga is a young team that has three freshmen in the singles lineup. Of those freshmen, Jay Fairclough — twin brother to Lily, who stars at USC — is on a team-high five-match win streak at the fifth position. He is the only Bulldog with a win streak after last week's 4-0 loss to LMU.
Doubles play has been a coin-flip for Gonzaga. The team has a collective 23-22 record in doubles play, yet the freshman duo of Fairclough and Nicholas Reeves are a bright spot at the second position, having won their last eight matches.
As for Portland, the Pilots are coming off a 4-0 win over LMU, which snapped a three-match losing skid. Led by their lone senior Maxim Groysman, who took over at the top singles position this year, the Pilots retained five players with match experience from last year's team despite losing four seniors to graduation. Portland is looking for their fourth-consecutive WCC Tournament appearance, yet they will need to outpace Gonzaga, which owns the tiebreaker over the Pilots.
Like their Pacific Northwest neighbors, the doubles point has been hit-and-miss for the Pilots so far. The Pilots' pairing of Tom Garcia and Lucas Kimelman leads the team with five dual-match wins at the third position and are 2-1 against WCC opponents. Portland has won the doubles point just four times this season.
In singles, Nicola Keremedchiev is on a three-match win streak and ties Garcia with eight dual-match wins this spring. Keremedchiev plays at the second position, while Garcia plays mostly at the fourth position. The Pilots have winning records everywhere but the first position.
Pepperdine leads the all-time series over Gonzaga and Portland. The Waves are 17-1 against Gonzaga and 14-3 against Portland.
WHAT'S NEXT
Pepperdine returns to Malibu for its most consequential match of the year: a Friday afternoon showdown against WCC rivals San Diego on April 18. First serve is at 2 p.m. All pertinent information can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
