SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Four members of the No. 27 Pepperdine women's tennis team earned All-West Coast Conference honors, plus freshman Alexia Harmon was named the Co-WCC Freshman of the Year on Tuesday.
Pepperdine was one of two teams with four different players to earn all-conference awards. Vivian Yang and Anastasiia Grechkina were first-team All-WCC selections, Harmon made the second team, plus freshman Duru Söke earned honorable mention singles honors. Grechkina and Harmon also earned doubles first-team All-WCC honors.
Playing at the top spot in the Pepperdine singles lineup for the first time in her career, Vivian Yang went 4-1 in WCC singles action and had 11 dual-match wins this spring. All four of Yang's wins were in straight sets. The Auckland, New Zealand native was ranked as high as 61st in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles rankings and notched two nationally ranked wins in her sophomore campaign. This is Yang's first all-conference award.
Making an immediate impact after joining Pepperdine this spring, Anastasiia Grechkina went 3-2 in league play while playing primarily at the second position. Grechkina ranks second on the Waves with 13 dual-match wins, including three over nationally-ranked opponents, and was ranked as high as 52nd in the ITA rankings. Grechkina was one of two Waves to earn the WCC Singles Player of the Week award twice. She has a 13-7 record and is up to 79th in the latest ITA singles rankings.
Becoming the fourth Wave in the last five years to earn WCC Freshman of the Year honors, Alexia Harmon posted a flawless 5-0 record in conference play at the third position. Four of Harmon's five conference wins were in straight sets. The former blue-chip recruit and top-20 ITA Newcomer of the Year met lofty expectations in her first season by leading the team with 16 dual-match wins. She has a 16-4 record and carries a nine-match win streak heading into the WCC Championships.
Rounding out Pepperdine's all-conference singles selections, Duru Söke earned honorable mention honors after going 4-0 in WCC play. All four of her wins were in straight sets at the fifth position. The freshman from Turkey was a back-to-back WCC Singles Player of the Week selection in March, and she is on a three-match win streak. Söke has a 9-5 record in dual match play.
Anastasiia Grechkina and Alexia Harmon were Pepperdine's lone team to earn all-conference doubles honors. They made the All-WCC First Team after posting a 12-6 record, including a 4-2 mark in conference, while playing at the first and second positions. Grechkina and Harmon won the WCC Doubles Team of the Week award three times this season while picking up two wins over ranked teams. They were ranked as high as 39th in the nation earlier this season. Pepperdine has had a doubles team win first-team All-WCC honors in six consecutive years.
The Waves begin their WCC Championship title defense against either the 4-seed LMU Lions or the 5-seed Gonzaga Bulldogs in San Diego on Friday, April 25. First serve is scheduled for 10 a.m. All schedule updates can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
