Pepperdine University
Pacific
#28 Waves Wrap up the Regular Season at Pacific and Saint Mary's
4/15/2025 11:23:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. — The No. 29 Pepperdine women's tennis team wraps up the regular season with road trips to Pacific and Saint Mary's this week.
The Waves take on Pacific this Friday at 1 p.m. before heading to Moraga, Calif. for the regular-season finale at Saint Mary's on Sunday at 11 a.m. If available, all live stream and live stat links can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 22: #28 Pepperdine (10-11, 3-1 WCC) @ Pacific (5-14, 0-6 WCC) | Friday, April 18 | 1 p.m. | Eve Zimmerman Tennis Center | Stockton, Calif.
MATCH 23: #28 Pepperdine (10-11, 3-1 WCC) @ Saint Mary's (6-11. 1-5 WCC) | Saturday, April 19 | 11 a.m. | Timothy Korth Tennis Complex | Moraga, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
All things must come to an end. Pepperdine snapped its 83-match WCC win streak in a loss at San Diego last Saturday, but the Waves aim to begin another conference win streak against Pacific and Saint Mary's this week.
Despite the result, Pepperdine is still projected to make the NCAA Tournament field, thanks to its wins over No. 16 USC, No. 20 California and an ITA Kickoff Weekend win over the No. 30 Arizona Wildcats that has aged well. The Waves could split the regular-season WCC title with a 2-0 week and a San Diego loss on Friday. With a one-game lead over third-place LMU and Washington State, Pepperdine needs to win both matches to earn a first-round bye in next week's WCC Championships.
Pepperdine showed great resolve in last weekend's 4-3 loss at then-No. 57 San Diego — which rose to 44th in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings after the win — especially at the bottom of the lineup. Freshmen Liam Oved and Duru Söke won in straight sets for the Waves at the sixth and fifth positions, respectively, which helped the Waves get back into the match. Fellow freshman Alexia Harmon won in straight sets on court three, extending her team-best win streak to eight. She leads the team with a 23-8 record this season, and her great serve and persistence along the baseline make her a tough out at the third position.
Aside from Harmon, the Waves have one nationally ranked singles player: No. 73 Anastasiia Grechkina. The Russian freshman ranks second on the team with 12 dual-match wins playing mostly at the second position. She went 1-2 last week, but bounced back in the Waves' 4-1 win over UC San Diego on Saturday night.
In doubles play, the Waves mixed up the lineup last weekend and debuted two new teams. Vivian Yang and Duru Söke teamed up at the third position to help the Waves clinch the doubles point against UC San Diego, while Liam Oved and Sebastianna Scilipoti competed together in doubles for the first time all year. While the team of Savannah Broadus and Yang rank 16th in the nation, the Waves' most successful team as of late has been Grechkina and Harmon, who have a 12-7 record. They are on a four-match win streak.
ACROSS THE NET
Barring a big shakeup from teams above them in the conference standings, the Pacific Tigers and Saint Mary's Gaels will likely wrap up their seasons this week. The Gaels are eighth in the league standings with a 1-5 record, while the Tigers are searching for their first WCC win. Both teams will need to go 2-0 against Pepperdine and LMU this week for a shot at a top-six finish and a trip to the WCC Championships in San Diego next week.
The Pacific Tigers are coming off a 4-3 heartbreaking loss to Santa Clara last week, which was the Tigers' closest WCC match all year. The squad is looking for its first Division I win since beating Eastern Washington 6-1 on March 24. Senior Megan Carmichael leads the team with 13 singles wins this year and has won five matches at the first position. The Tigers have no nationally ranked singles players or doubles teams.
As for the Saint Mary's Gaels, the Gaels split a pair of matches last weekend by beating GCU 4-3 before getting swept by Portland. The Gaels' lone WCC win was a 4-1 victory over Pacific back on March 22, and the team has lost four consecutive conference matches since then.
Although the Gaels have no nationally ranked individuals, the team has winning records at the fourth through sixth positions in the singles lineup. Senior Stefanie Silva has a 9-1 record this spring while playing mostly at the fifth position, while fellow senior Olivia Rook also has nine dual-match wins. Saint Mary's has won the doubles point in just six of the 18 matches this year.
Pepperdine has a 26-4 advantage over the Gaels in the all-time series; Saint Mary's last win over Pepperdine was in 2015. Coincidentally, that loss kicked off the 83-match WCC win streak that was snapped last weekend. The Waves are 23-1 against Pacific and haven't lost to the Tigers since 1987.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Waves will compete in the WCC Championships, held at San Diego State's Aztec Tennis Center from April 24-26. All schedule updates can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
