Pepperdine University Athletics

PEPPERDINE 2016-17: All-WCC second team doubles … Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete … WCC All-Tournament team in doubles … Tabbed WCC Doubles Pair of the Week alongside partner Stefan Menichella on April 18 … won National Collegiate Tennis Classic doubles title with Menichella in January … Compiled a 12-11 singles record, with seven unfinished matches … Had a doubles record of 18-12 on the year with partner Menichella.

PEPPERDINE 2015-16: Joined the Waves in January 2016 … Earned WCC Commissioner’s Cup Honor Roll “bronze” honors … Went 10-6 in singles dual play and finished with a 5-8 record in doubles competition … In singles, went 4-2 in the number four position, 3-1 in the number five position and an even 3-3 in the number six position for the Waves … Finished his freshman singles campaign with a 7-1 record output … In doubles, finished with a 5-5 record from the number three position … Collected a 4-3 record in the third position with partner Tom Hill and picked up a 1-0 record when playing with Guilherme Hadlich … Helped the Waves reach the WCC Championship finals with a three-set victory over 60^th-ranked BYUs John Pearce.

HIGH SCHOOL: Graduated from Laurel Springs High School in Ojai, Calif. … Career-high ITF junior world ranking of 137 … Reached semifinals at the Canada U18 Nationals … Doubles champion at TC Backkum Dutch Junior Open ITF, a G2 tournament in the Netherlands … Reached singles semifinals at the IGTA Junior Cup hosted by Babolat ITF in Germany after defeating a top-55 player 13-11 in the third set of the quarterfinal match … Reached quarterfinals of the 2015 Reel Tennis Open Championship in singles in Tamarac, Fla. … Reached the round of 16 at the Tampa USTA Men’s Pro Circuit Futures in singles in Tampa, Fla. … Has earned six ITF doubles championships and one singles championship … As a junior, defeated now professional performer Matthew Kandath, formerly of Stanford, 6-4, 6-2.

PERSONAL: Son of L. Christine Van Slyke and Gregory B. Van Slyke … Other than tennis, his favorite hobbies include playing Xbox and listening to music … An interesting fact is he travelled to over 28 countries in the world thus far … Majoring in rhetoric and leadership ... Chose Pepperdine for many reasons, including “the tennis program, which has an incredible reputation and being a Wave will help me achieve my goal of becoming a professional tennis player, as well as the team chemistry displayed by all the players and the connection with the coaches.” 

FAVORITES: Favorite food is Chipotle … Favorite movie is Southpaw … Favorite musical artist is Drake … Favorite sport other than tennis is swimming … Cited his favorite thing about tennis as being able to always put yourself back in the match [no matter what the score is], unlike timed sports.  His favorite sports moment is “qualifying for Vero Beach futures by winning a three and a half hour match in the third round, and then winning my last round qualies in four hours.”