MALIBU, Calif. — In another thrilling installment of the Pepperdine-San Diego men's tennis rivalry, the No. 28 Pepperdine Waves pushed the seventh-ranked Toreros to the brink before USD won 4-2 at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.

After dropping a close doubles point, Waves (14-9, 4-2 WCC) freshmen David Fix and Lasse Poertner stepped up to take a 2-1 lead on the Toreros (22-3, 7-0 WCC), yet USD pulled ahead with wins on courts one and three. Capping off the three-hour and 17-minute match, San Diego freshman Adrien Berrut sealed the win with a three-set victory at the fifth position, giving the Toreros their first outright WCC title since 2022.

Playing in front of a packed crowd for the biggest home match of the regular season, Pepperdine made an early statement in doubles play. Veterans Linus Carlsson Halldin and Maxi Homberg won the first break point of the afternoon at the second doubles position en route to going up 3-0 on Adrien Berrut and Savriyan Danilov. The Waves maintained a double-break lead throughout the match before Carlsson Halldin broke the Toreros in the final game to win 6-2.

Right as the Waves broke open the match on court two, freshmen Aleksa Pisaric and Lasse Poertner broke Nikhil Niranjan and Blake Kasday to go up 4-2 at the third position. Yet in order to get that lead, the Pepperdine freshmen won deuce points in back-to-back service games. With the Toreros tying the score with a lopsided win at the first position, Pepperdine needed to win at the third position to claim the doubles point.

Unfortunately for Pepperdine, the Toreros broke back at deuce in the seventh game before pulling off a 6-4 comeback win.

Down 1-0 against San Diego's experienced lineup, the Waves' talented freshmen class looked undeterred in their first WCC rivalry match. Germans David Fix and Lasse Poertner led the charge at the bottom half of the lineup, with Fix wrapping up his first set quicker than everyone else.

Facing off against Blake Kasday on court six, Fix broke the Torero fifth-year in the third game before taking a double-break lead. Fix served out his 6-2 win, finishing his first set in under half an hour. The second set was played on serve until Fix broke Kasday in the third game and took another double-break lead, but this time, Kasday held serve in the seventh game to stay alive. Kasday broke Fix in the eighth game, yet Fix broke back on deuce point to get Pepperdine on the board with a 6-2, 6-3 win.

Fix's win turned the tide for the Waves for the next forty minutes. One court over, Poertner successfully navigated through the end of a topsy-turvy first set against junior Neo Niedner. 

Despite going down a break in the sixth game, Niedner broke Poertner at deuce in the seventh game to put the match back on serve. Just as the first set seemed to slip away from Poertner, the Pepperdine freshman broke back on deuce point and went back to serve out his first set. Niedner broke Poertner again at deuce, yet Poertner answered by breaking the Torero veteran for a 6-4 first-set win.

Poertner's first-set win proved to be pivotal for the Waves. Poertner blazed through his second set, giving up just one game to Niedner before capping off his 6-4, 6-1 straight-set win with two aces in the final game.

The Waves rode that momentum for the next half hour. Pisaric and No. 89 Maxi Homberg flipped their matches with second-set wins, most notably with Homberg pulling away 7-2 in a tiebreak against No. 90 Savriyan Danilov at the second position.

But the Toreros flipped the script. Straight-set wins on courts one and three put USD back in front, forcing Homberg and Pisaric to win three-set matches to pull off a pivotal upset. The Toreros eventually won out, as Berrut won an all-freshman battle on court five to quash Pepperdine's chance at a third top-10 home win.

With the loss, Pepperdine fell to a three-way tie for second place in the WCC standings with Pacific and Santa Clara. Although the Tigers wrapped up WCC play, the Waves and Broncos play in their regular-season finales tomorrow.

Pepperdine will honor seniors Linus Carlsson Halldin and Chris Papa after tomorrow's match against Saint Mary's. First serve is at 2 p.m. All schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.

RESULTS

Singles

1. #3 Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #25 Edward Winter (PEPP) 7-5, 6-3
2. #89 Maxi Homberg (PEPP) vs. #90 Savriyan Danilov (USD) 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 2-4, unfinished
3. Stian Klaassen (USD) def. Linus Carlsson Halldin (PEPP) 6-3, 7-5
4. Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. Neo Niedner (USD) 6-4, 6-1
5. Adrien Berrut (USD) def. Aleksa Pisaric (PEPP) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
6. David Fix (PEPP) def. Blake Kasday (USD) 6-2, 6-3

Order of finish: 6,4,3,1,5*

Doubles
1. #4 Stian Klaassen/Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #60 Edward Winter/Hugh Winter (PEPP) 6-1
2. Linus Carlsson Halldin/Maxi Homberg (PEPP) def. Adrien Berrut/Savriyan Danilov (USD) 6-2
3. Nikhil Niranjan/Blake Kasday (USD) def. Aleksa Pisaric/Lasse Poertner (PEPP) 6-4

Order of finish: 2,1,3*