MALIBU, Calif. — After rising to 25th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings, the No. 25 Pepperdine men's tennis team begins postseason play at the West Coast Conference Men's Tennis Tournament, which begins Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Once again, the WCC Men's and Women's Tennis Tournament occurs at San Diego State's Aztec Tennis Center, starting with the quarterfinals this Thursday. The Waves, which earned the 2-seed in the draw and a semifinal bye, take on the winner between the 3-seed Santa Clara and the 6-seed Saint Mary's on Friday at 1:30 p.m. Should they advance to the title match, the Waves will play Saturday at 2 p.m.
Live stream and live stat links for all WCC Tournament matches will be available on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 25: #25 Pepperdine (15-9, 5-2 WCC) vs. Santa Clara (14-8, 5-2 WCC)/Saint Mary's (5-16, 2-5 WCC) | Friday, April 25 | 1:30 p.m. PT | Aztec Tennis Center | San Diego, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Welcome to the most exciting time of the college tennis season.
Coming off one of the most successful seasons in the Adam Schaechterle era, the No. 25 Pepperdine Waves look to take home some hardware at the WCC Tournament this weekend. At 15-9 with wins over three top-25 teams, the Waves are a lock for the NCAA Tournament right now, but a WCC Tournament title will give Pepperdine all the momentum in the world heading into the postseason.
Thankfully for Pepperdine, the Waves are getting back on track after handling some adversity in April. Winners of three of their last four matches heading into this weekend, Pepperdine will have a full complement of players throughout the WCC Tournament as the team aims for a rematch with conference rival San Diego in the championships.
For the first time ever, the Waves put seven different players on the WCC All-Conference team, which speaks to how talented this young roster is across the board. Two-time All-WCC First Team selection Edward Winter is experiencing the best season of his career: The Australian sophomore ranks 23rd in the latest ITA polls, has already surpassed last year's total with 14 dual-match wins and has gone 9-1 in his last 10 matches. His lone loss in WCC play was to No. 3 Oliver Tarvet of San Diego, who will most likely be Winter's opponent in the championship title match. Yet Winter leads the team with five wins over nationally ranked opponents, including a stunning straight-set win over NCAA Singles Champion Michael Zheng.
Fellow first-team singles selection No. 87 Maxi Homberg plays at court two, giving the Waves multiple NCAA singles qualifiers in the lineup for the first time since 2013. With Winter and Homberg in the lineup, the Waves are one of five schools outside the Power-4 ranks with multiple top-100 singles players (the others are San Diego, Columbia, Harvard and Princeton). Plus, Homberg has a history of playing well in the WCC Tournament: As a freshman, he clinched Pepperdine's 4-0 championship sweep over San Diego with a straight-set win over Marvin Schaber. Last year, he and Chris Papa were the heroes by clinching the doubles point against the Toreros in the title match.
Elsewhere in the lineup, the Waves get a lift from WCC Singles Second-Team selections Linus Carlsson Halldin and Lasse Poertner, who play at the third and fourth positions, respectively. Carlsson Halldin has been clutch for the Waves this year: He clinched the Waves' first win at UCLA since 2006, plus top-25 wins over Arizona State and Columbia. Poertner, meanwhile, ranks second on the team with 12 dual-match wins, most came on a hot streak in March when Poertner won seven consecutive straight-set matches.
But the Waves' best characteristic is their depth. Two freshmen from Pepperdine's No. 2 recruiting class in the nation, Aleksa Pisaric and David Fix, bolster the back half of Pepperdine's lineup. Fix has quietly put together a solid debut season with an 11-6 record while playing mostly at the sixth position; the German freshman was unbeaten in WCC play and has won his last four matches in straight sets. Meanwhile, Pisaric won 10 regular-season dual matches at the bottom half of Pepperdine's lineup. Never shy of the big moment, the Serbian clinched the Waves' upset win over Texas A&M and is 4-2 in three-set matches.
While the Waves have just one nationally ranked doubles team in No. 64 Edward and Hugh Winter, Pepperdine wouldn't be a true Adam Schaechterle team without exciting doubles play. The Waves boast two all-conference pairings with the Winter brothers, plus Carlsson Halldin and Homberg, the latter of whom are coming off an emphatic 6-2 win over San Diego last week. Yet the most successful team is the all-freshman pairing of Pisaric and Poertner, who lead the team with 14 dual-match wins at the third position. Pepperdine has won the doubles point in 16 of its 24 matches.
Pepperdine leads all WCC teams with 44 WCC Tournament titles, dating back to the inaugural tournament in 1958. A WCC championship match wouldn't be complete without the Waves, who have made the tournament final in all but three seasons since the conference tournament adopted the dual-match format in 1995.
Regardless of the results this week, Pepperdine is a lock for the NCAA Tournament. Although a top-16 seed and home-court advantage for the first two rounds is mathematically unlikely, the Waves would likely be a 2-seed in their first-round tournament site. The Waves have made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances under Schaechterle and won postseason matches in three of the last four seasons.
ACROSS THE NET
Thankfully for Pepperdine, the Waves handled both potential semifinal opponents in the regular season. The Waves swept Santa Clara on the road earlier this spring, while Pepperdine is coming off a 4-0 Senior Day sweep of Saint Mary's less than a week ago.
Riding a three-match win streak, the No. 70 Santa Clara Broncos need to win the conference title to make the NCAA Tournament. Head coach Niall Angus' squad has dropped just two singles matches since losing to the Waves on March 30, and the Broncos will square off against a Saint Mary's team it swept earlier this season in the quarterfinals.
Led by WCC honorable mention selections Alexander Watanabe Eriksson and Luca Lemaitre, the Broncos have three players on significant win streaks heading into this weekend. Lukas Maskow, who plays mostly at the second and third positions, went 4-1 in WCC play and is on a four-match win streak, while Lemaitre and John Kim have won their last three matches. The Broncos have been successful in the lower half of the lineup this season: They are 47-2 at the No. 3-6 singles spots in the lineup so far.
In Pepperdine's 4-0 sweep over Santa Clara, the Waves used a new doubles lineup to take the doubles point, plus got straight-set wins from Edward Winter, Chris Papa and Lasse Poertner to clinch the match. Pepperdine leads the all-time series 26-1 over Santa Clara and is a perfect 3-0 against the Broncos in the WCC Tournament.
As for the Saint Mary's Gaels, the 6-seed of the tournament draw aims to snap a four-match losing streak heading into this weekend. The Gaels are making their first WCC Tournament appearance since 2023, when they took a narrow 4-3 loss to the Broncos in the quarterfinals. Three-time All-WCC honoree Carlos Ramos Membrives is the lone member from that 2023 squad; he was an honorable mention all-conference selection after going 9-6 at the top spot in the Gaels' singles lineup.
Last weekend on Senior Day, Pepperdine made quick work of Saint Mary's in a 4-0 sweep, which saw the bottom half of the Waves' lineup come through with easy straight-set wins. After taking the doubles point, Chris Papa, David Fix and Hugh Winter surrendered just three games combined in their straight-set wins to finish off Saint Mary's.
Should the Waves advance to the championship, a rematch with WCC rival No. 7 San Diego awaits on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Pepperdine and San Diego have squared off in the last three WCC Championships and eight of the last 10 title matches. USD has won two of the last three WCC title matches over the Waves, with the exception being Pepperdine's emphatic 4-0 sweep of San Diego in 2023. Earlier this season, the Toreros beat the Waves in a close 4-2 match that saw two matches reach a third set.
WHAT'S NEXT
The NCAA Men's Tennis Selection show will be livestreamed on NCAA.com on Monday, April 28, at a time that has yet to be determined. All schedule updates can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
