Pepperdine University Athletics

Per Nilsson, a proven winner, has elevated what was already one of the nation's top women's tennis squads into one of the country's most elite programs. He enters his eleventh season at the helm in 2024-25.

Nilsson succeeded Gualberto Escudero in the summer of 2014 after Escudero had led the Waves for the previous 37 years. The results speak for themselves, with an appearance in the national championship match in 2021 and six other NCAA quarterfinal appearances. Over the past eight years, the Waves have ranked in the top 10 seven times and have been no worse than #13.

At Pepperdine, Nilsson has amassed a 221-48 overall record for a sterling .815 winning percentage. The Waves have won every possible West Coast Conference crown during his ten years — nine regular-season titles and eight tournament victories.

After making the NCAA's second round in his debut season in 2015, the Waves have done better every year since. In addition to the national championship runner-up finish in 2021, the Waves reached the semifinals in 2024, the quarterfinals in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022, and the Round of 16 in 2018 and 2023.

Nilsson has earned ITA Southwest Regional Coach of the Year honors three times (2017, 2018, 2019), while receiving six West Coast Conference Coach of the Year nods (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2024).

During his time with the Waves, Nilsson has coached 47 All-WCC singles selections, including 27 first team, nine second team and 11 honorable mention honorees. He has also produced 18 All-WCC doubles selections including 13 first team doubles partnerships, five second team pairs and two honorable mentions. He has led the Waves to eight WCC Players of the Year and seven WCC Freshmen of the Year. Nine different Waves have earned All-American honors a total of 20 times.
 
His recruiting efforts have yielded many standout players including Ashley Lahey, Luisa Stefani and Mayar Sherif, among many others. In the fall of 2019, he coached Lahey to three individual singles titles (ITA/Oracle Masters, Women’s Collegiate Invitational and ITA All-American Championships) where she earned the first #1 ranking in Pepperdine women’s tennis history. Lahey was also named the ITA Senior Player of the Year in 2020, as well as being named the WCC Gilleran Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2021. Stefani and Sherif competed at the Olympics in 2021, with Stefani earning a bronze medal for Brazil in doubles.

In 2024, the Waves went 21-7 and made the program's second-ever semifinal appearance thanks to a lineup with five nationally ranked singles players and the runner-up NCAA doubles team of Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen. That year, Nilsson won his 200th dual match at the helm of Pepperdine women's tennis with a 4-0 sweep over #9 USC at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. Pepperdine won nine matches against nationally ranked teams — including two top-10 wins over #9 Ohio State and #9 USC — and was the outright WCC Champions, which earned them a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Waves rolled through the opening rounds of the tournament, swept USC in the Super Regionals to make the final site and upset 2-seed Michigan 4-1 in Stillwater to reach the semifinals for the second time in program history. Pepperdine finished the season ranked sixth in the ITA rankings, had three All-Americans (Broadus, Tjen, Lisa Zaar) and five nationally ranked players (Broadus, Tjen, Zaar, Anna Campana and Nikki Redelijk). In the classroom, Redelijk also became the second player under Nilsson to be named the WCC Gilleran Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

One week after making the semifinals, Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen made the longest run of any Pepperdine women's doubles team to finish the year as the NCAA doubles runner-up. Broadus and Tjen ended their collegiate careers as the top-ranked doubles team and the first Pepperdine women's doubles team to earn All-American status three times.

The 2023 campaign saw Pepperdine win at least 20 matches for the third-straight year. Eleven of those wins were against nationally ranked teams, plus the Waves went a perfect 9-0 at home — including a 4-1 win over USC in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In the fall, Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen became ITA National Doubles Champions, plus they were the nation's #1 ranked doubles team for the majority of the season. That spring, Pepperdine reached the Super Regionals for the third-consecutive year. Individually, Broadus, Tjen and Lisa Zaar made the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament, making Pepperdine the only school outside the Power-5 ranks to send multiple athletes to the postseason.

Four different Waves earned All-American honors in 2022 as the Waves returned to the NCAA quarterfinals, although #1 North Carolina avenged a loss to the Waves in the 2021 semifinals.

The 2021 season was arguably the most successful dual season in program history, seeing the Waves defeat multiple highly ranked opponents in the NCAA Tournament and earning the team a spot in the tournament semifinals and finals for the first time in the storied history of Pepperdine women's tennis. Finishing as runners-up, the Waves beat #28 Stanford in the second round of the tournament, marking the fifth season in a row and 19th overall that Pepperdine had advanced to the Sweet 16. The Waves then beat #20 Michigan, #4 UCLA and previously undefeated and #1 North Carolina to advance to the championship, eventually falling to #2 Texas in dramatic fashion at 4-3. In the singles tournament, Jessica Failla advanced to the round of 16, earning All-American status. 
 
In 2019, the Waves earned the program’s 36th berth into the NCAA Championships, where they reached the quarterfinals for the third time in four years. During the 2019 campaign, the Waves posted a 24-4 overall record and finished the season ranked sixth nationally — the team's highest ranking through the season.  
 
In 2018, he coached Lahey to the NCAA Singles Championship final, helping her finish as runner-up. It was the first time in Pepperdine women’s tennis history that a player had reached the final match. He coached Lahey, Sherif, Stefani and Evgeniya Levashova into the NCAA Singles Championship and Lahey, Sherif and Stefani all reached the quarterfinals. It was the first season since 2011 that any team had sent three competitors into the quarterfinal. Lahey and Sherif played in the semifinals, becoming the third and fourth Pepperdine women’s tennis players ever to do so, and the first team in the nation to have two players in the round since the 2012 season.  After the year completed, Stefani earned her third straight ITA All-American singles honor, while Sherif and Lahey earned their second consecutive nod. Sherif also picked up an ITA All-American doubles honor along with ITA Southwest Region Senior Player of the Year and Most Improved Senior honors.
 
In 2017, Stefani once again earned WCC Player of the Year honors while Lahey garnered ITA Southwest Region Player to Watch honors. Nilsson coached the Waves to the NCAA Championships quarterfinal round for the second year in a row.  The Waves finished #9 in the final Oracle/ITA rankings and went 24-5 overall with WCC regular-season and tournament crowns. During that year, five Waves earned ITA All-American honors with three singles nods and one doubles partnership nod.  Along with their All-American nod, Sherif and Christine Maddox finished the season as the No. 1-ranked pair in the ITA doubles rankings.
 
In 2016, Stefani earned ITA National Rookie of the Year acclaim as well as ITA Southwest Region Rookie of the Year and Player to Watch, WCC Freshman and Player of the Year and first team singles and doubles honors in her freshman campaign. She also reached the NCAA Singles Championships semifinals in 2016, becoming the first Wave to do so since the 1989 season. The Waves went 24-3, won both WCC titles and began Pepperdine’s run of quarterfinal appearances.
 
In 2015, Nilsson recruited Laura Gulbe, who went on to earn WCC Freshman of the Year status. With a roster comprised of just seven student-athletes, the Waves won both the conference’s regular-season and tournament championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Pepperdine concluded the season with an 18-7 record and a final ranking of #22.
 
This isn’t Nilsson’s first coaching job at Pepperdine. He was an assistant coach for the Pepperdine men’s tennis team from 2003-07 under head coach Adam Steinberg, where the Waves went 119-38 in those five seasons and won the 2006 national championship.
 
Nilsson was very involved in Pepperdine's recruiting efforts leading up to the 2006 title, which saw the Waves post a 36-2 record and hand Georgia its only loss of the season in the NCAA title match at Stanford.
 
Leading up to that crowning season, Pepperdine had improved from #27 in the country in 2004 to #8 nationally in 2005, a year in which Nilsson was named the ITA’s West Region Assistant Coach of the Year. The Waves advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals in that campaign, ending at 24-3.
 
In between stints at Pepperdine, Nilsson spent seven seasons (2008-14) as the head men’s coach at his alma mater, Mississippi State. There, he compiled a record of 95-76 while going 36-42 in the tough Southeastern Conference. He led the Bulldogs to back-to-back SEC West titles in 2011 and 2012 and brought MSU to four straight NCAA Tournaments from 2011-14.
 
In his six seasons in Starkville, Nilsson’s squads produced four ITA All-Americans and 17 All-SEC selections. His eye for recruiting and developing young talent was evident as a Mississippi State player garnered SEC Freshman of the Year honors three times. In 2013, Romain Bogaerts not only took the conference’s top rookie award, he was also honored as the ITA National Freshman of the Year.
 
Nilsson took the Bulldogs to the NCAA Championship in 2011, their first appearance since 2005, and MSU advanced to the second round. After reaching the second round again in 2012, Nilsson’s young 2013 team eclipsed expectations and advanced to the NCAA Championship round of 16 for the first time since 2001. Mississippi State made their fourth consecutive appearance at the tournament in 2014 and reached the second round.
 
Nilsson had racked up the honors for himself as well throughout his time at MSU, including an SEC Coach of the Year honor in 2011 and two ITA Southern Region Coach of the Year honors in 2011 and 2013.
 
In the classroom, Nilsson’s teams were just as dominant. MSU was an ITA All-Academic team for five consecutive seasons, producing 40 Academic All-SEC selections and 29 ITA Scholar-Athlete selections. Nilsson also had two players named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.
 
Nilsson played collegiately at Mississippi State from 1992-94 and helped the Bulldogs earn three consecutive top-10 national rankings. MSU reached the round of 16 at the NCAA Championship in 1992 and 1993 before reaching the semifinals in 1994. He served as team captain during his senior year. Nilsson was ranked #6 on the Bulldogs' all-time career victory list in both singles and doubles.
 
Nilsson was a student assistant coach at Mississippi State during the 1994-95 season before working as a tennis professional at the Capital City Country Club and St. Marlo Country Club. From 1998-2000, he was the Director of Tennis at Appalachee Farms.
 
A native of Lund, Sweden, Nilsson was a high school exchange student at Jackson (Miss.) Academy and was the 1990 Mississippi Academy singles champion. He earned a degree in business and sports administration from Mississippi State in 2008. He is married to the former Beth Vennerstrom and the two reside in Malibu with their son, Reef.