MALIBU, Calif. — Part of the Pepperdine men's tennis team's non-conference schedule was determined Thursday, as the Waves selected to play in the Tucson Regional during the 2026 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend draft.
Pepperdine will be the 3-seed in the Tucson Regional, which includes Florida State and LSU along with the hosting Arizona Wildcats. The Waves will face the 2-seed Florida State Seminoles in the first round, then play either the 1-seed Arizona or the 4-seed LSU to wrap up the weekend. Should the Waves go 2-0 during Kickoff Weekend, they will punch their tickets to the ITA Indoor Team National Championship, which is held at Baylor University and SMU from Feb. 13-17, 2026.
The 2026 ITA Kickoff Weekend will take place from Jan. 23-26, 2026. Final dates and times are forthcoming.
The ITA Kickoff Weekend features 56 Division I tennis teams vying for 14 spots in the ITA Indoor Team National Championship. For the second consecutive year, the 14 host sites are determined using the final ITA rankings. During ITA Kickoff Weekend, the remaining teams select a host site to play at using a draft system, starting with the 15th team in the ITA rankings and ending when the full 56-team field is complete.
Florida State and Pepperdine have played just nine matches against each other. The Seminoles own a 5-4 lead over the Waves in the all-time series, with the latest result being a 4-0 Florida State sweep in 2018. Coincidentally, Pepperdine's first win over Florida State was at the ITA Indoor Team National Championships during the Waves' 2006 national championship season.
Tucson is a familiar destination for Pepperdine: The Waves have competed at the Robson Tennis Center in each of the last three seasons. Pepperdine faced Arizona early in the 2023 and 2025 seasons, plus the Waves went to Tucson to face Auburn for the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Last year, the Waves went to Starkville, Miss. for the ITA Kickoff Weekend and went 1-1 against eventual NCAA quarterfinalist Mississippi State and LSU. Pepperdine will go for its 28th ITA National Indoor Championships appearance in 2026.
The Waves are coming off one of their best seasons under Director of Tennis Adam Schaechterle, who guided Pepperdine to its fifth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Boasting the nation's second-ranked recruiting class, the freshman-heavy Waves went 17-11 — including two home wins over top-10 teams — and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five years.
A full 2025-26 schedule is forthcoming.
