MALIBU, Calif. — The No. 20 Pepperdine men's tennis team will wrap up the non-conference slate with a home match against No. 39 UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Admission to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is free to the public. The match will be livestreamed for free via PlaySight. All pertinent information can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 20: #20 Pepperdine (12-7, 2-1 WCC) vs. #39 UC Santa Barbara (13-3, 3-0 Big West) | Wednesday, April 9 | 2 p.m. PT | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Malibu, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Playing against its tenth consecutive ranked opponent, the Waves will look to bounce back from last Friday's shocking 4-3 loss to Pacific. While that loss doesn't hurt Pepperdine's at-large hopes, the Waves need more quality wins to offset that loss. Right now, UC Santa Barbara is the second-best team remaining on the Waves' schedule.
In the Pacific match last week, sophomore Edward Winter was a bright spot for the Waves. The Australian sophomore ranks 21st in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association polls and is playing the best tennis of his collegiate career. Winter is on a team-best eight-match win streak — and all of them have been in straight sets — and is playing like an All-American as of late. His 13 dual-match wins lead the team, and only freshman Lasse Poertner, who played at the second position last week, has more than 10 singles wins this spring. Winter is one of two nationally ranked singles players in Pepperdine's lineup; No. 75 Maxi Homberg is the other.
Additionally, Winter is nationally ranked in doubles with his younger brother, Hugh Winter. The Winter brothers have a 4-4 record atop Pepperdine's doubles lineup with two ranked wins. The Waves have winning records at all three doubles positions so far and have won the doubles point in 12 of the team's 19 matches this year.
Last year, Pepperdine beat UCSB 6-1 in Santa Barbara, but only three Waves from that match are on the roster this year. The Waves lead the all-time series against the Gauchos 39-4 and have won the last four matches. Pepperdine is 27-3 against UCSB at home.
ACROSS THE NET
Ranked No. 39 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association polls, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are enjoying a strong season under head coach Blake Miller.
Despite losing All-American Pablo Masjuan to graduation, the Gauchos have a 13-3 record, three ranked wins and a pair of victories over Power-4 opponents. UCSB's success makes the Big West a two-horse race between them and the No. 44 UC Irvine Anteaters; right now, both teams are above the cut line in the CollegeTennisRanks NCAA Tournament projections.
The Gauchos excel at the middle of the singles lineup. UCSB has a .900 win percentage or better at the third and fourth positions thanks to Lucca Liu, Diogo Morais and Dominique Rolland. All three men have been interchangeable in the middle of the lineup. While No. 65 Gianluca Brunkow and No. 108 Diogo Morais are UCSB's only nationally ranked players, unranked Dominique Rolland has been on a tear. The junior has a perfect 10-0 record in dual-match play while playing in the top half of the lineup.
UC Santa Barbara has one nationally ranked doubles team: No. 45 Gianluca Brunkow and Dominique Rolland, who are 9-3 in dual match play have been ranked all spring. The duo's lone ranked win was a 6-4 win over Utah's Jarvis Reid and Dante Teramo, who were ranked 74th at the time, yet the Gaucho pairing hasn't finished most of its matches against some of the nation's best teams. Doubles play has been an area of improvement for UCSB, which has lost the doubles point in the last four matches.
WHAT'S NEXT
Later this week, Pepperdine will take its final regular-season road trip to the Pacific Northwest for matches at Gonzaga and Portland. All pertinent information can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
