LOS ANGELES — No. 24 Pepperdine men's tennis (5-4) was defeated by a 4-2 scoreline at No. 21 USC (7-3) Friday afternoon from David X. Marks Tennis Stadium.
Edward Winter and Lasse Poertner earned singles victories for the Waves in the effort, as Pepperdine dropped the doubles point with the final two courts going to tiebreaks.
"I'm disappointed in our performance today," said Director of Tennis Adam Schaechterle. "We didn't hit the mark of how we want to compete. The good news is that we have it on tape and we have some time before our next road trip to learn and correct."
After falling on court one doubles, Hugh Winter and Edward Winter forced a tiebreak at the No. 2 position while Maxi Homberg and Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida also went to a tiebreak on three. The Trojans were able to prevail with a win on three, going ahead 1-0 in the match.
After USC picked up a win on six, Edward Winter got the Waves on the board with a straight set win at the No. 1 position. Winter defeated Branko Djuric (6-2, 7-5), to earn his team-leading fifth singles victory of the dual match season.
The Trojans went ahead 3-1 after a second set tiebreak win on five, with Lasse Poertner then winning his match on three to bring the score to 3-2. Poertner registered a 7-3 tiebreak win in the first set, before taking the second set, 6-2, to earn the straight set win over Jack McCarthy.
With the final two matches going a third set, the Trojans clinched the match on court two with Nathan Trouve prevailing over Maxi Homberg (6-3, 3-6, 6-3).
At flight four, Aleksa Pisaric saw his match abandoned in the third set (6-4, 3-6, 2-3).
RESULTS
Doubles
1. Andrin Casanova/Jack McCarthy (USC) def. Lasse Poertner/Aleksa Pisaric (PEPP): 6-2
2. Edward Winter/Hugh Winter (PEPP) ABN vs. Connor Church/Branko Djuric (USC): 6-6 (2-4)
3. Max Exsted/Nathan Trouve (USC) def. Maxi Homberg/Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida: (PEPP): 7-6 (7-3)
Order of finish: 1,3
Singles
1. Edward Winter (PEPP) def. Branko Djuric (USC): 6-2, 7-5
2. Nathan Trouve (USC) def. Maxi Homberg (PEPP): 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
3. No. 100 Lasse Poertner (PEPP) def. Jack McCarthy (USC): 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
4. No. 124 Aleksa Pisaric (PEPP) ABN vs. Max Exsted (USC): 6-4, 3-6, 2-3
5 Niels Hoffman (USC) def. Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida (PEPP): 6-1, 7-6 (7-2)
6. Andrin Casanova (USC) def. Hugh Winter (PEPP): 6-0, 6-1
Order of finish: 6,1,5,3,2
The Waves return in two-weeks time, opening a five-match road trip on the east coast at No. 12 Columbia on Feb. 27.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE MEN'S TENNIS
Pepperdine men's tennis has a longstanding tradition of success, highlighted by an NCAA Championship in 2006 which came 54 years after its first NAIA Championship in 1952. Robbie Weiss recorded the program's first NCAA singles championship in 1988 after the program saw doubles national championships in 1984 and 1985. 44-time WCC Champions, Pepperdine has reached 40 NCAA Tournaments and six NCAA Regionals in its history with 53 total All-Americans.
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