MALIBU, Calif. — The No. 23 Pepperdine women's tennis team picked up its third West Coast Conference win with a 4-1 home victory over No. 59 Washington State on Sunday afternoon.
In the team's penultimate home match of the regular season, the Waves (9-9, 3-0 WCC) bounced back from losing a close doubles point to the Cougars (13-7, 3-2 WCC) with straight-set singles wins from Alexia Harmon, Duru Söke and Liam Oved. Freshman Anastasiia Grechkina clinched the match with a three-set win over Maxine Murphy on court two. With the win, Pepperdine has won 83 consecutive WCC matches — a streak that dates back to 2015.
Although Washington State took the doubles point, Pepperdine won all six first sets to turn the match. Like she is wont to do, freshman Alexia Harmon blazed through her match against Elyse Tse. Harmon was never broken and gave up just one game in each of her sets to win 6-1, 6-1 for her fifth-consecutive win.
From there, the bottom of Pepperdine's lineup overpowered Washington State.
On court five, Duru Söke was down a break against Chisato Kanemaki early in the first set, yet she broke Kanemaki to tie the score at four games apiece. Söke broke Kanemaki at deuce in the tenth game and held serve before breaking Kanemaki for the 7-5 first-set win. However, Söke's second set was much easier: She broke Kanemaki early and didn't look back before serving out her 7-5 ,6-1 straight-set win.
Moments later on court six, Liam Oved beat Martina Puvill in straight sets, however, the Pepperdine freshman needed to fend off a late push from Puvill. Oved took a double-break lead and had a chance to break Puvill in the seventh game, yet Puvill held at deuce to extend her match. Oved eventually prevailed and broke Puvill for the 6-3, 6-4 win.
Despite letting her second set slip away against Maxine Murphy on court two, No. 87 Anastasiia Grechkina clinched the match for the Waves in her three-set win. In her final service game, Grechkina held at deuce against the Washington State veteran before breaking Murphy one final time in the 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
Pepperdine will host UC Santa Barbara for Senior Day on Thursday, April 10 at 1 p.m. All schedule updates can be found on the women's tennis team's schedule page at pepperdinewaves.com.
RESULTS
Singles
1. Vivian Yang (PEPPW) vs. Eva Alvarez Sande (WSU) 7-6 (2), 3-5, unfinished
2. #87 Anastasiia Grechkina (PEPPW) def. Maxine Murphy (WSU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
3. Alexia Harmon (PEPPW) def. Elyse Tse (WSU) 6-1, 6-1
4. Sebastianna Scilipoti (PEPPW) vs. Hania Abouelsaad (WSU) 7-6 (2), 3-6, 2-0, unfinished
5. Duru Söke (PEPPW) def. Chisato Kanemaki (WSU) 7-5, 6-1
6. Liam Oved (PEPPW) def. Martina Puvill (WSU) 6-3, 6-4
Order of finish: 3,6,5,2*
Doubles
1. #40 Maxine Murphy/Eva Alvarez Sande (WSU) def. Duru Söke/Sebastianna Scilipoti (PEPPW) 7-5
2. Anastasiia Grechkina/Alexia Harmon (PEPPW) def. Elyse Tse/Chisato Kanemaki (WSU) 6-2
3. Hania Abouelsaad/Martina Markov (WSU) def. Liam Oved/Vivian Yang (PEPPW) 7-6 (2)
Order of finish: 2,1,3*
