Men’s Tennis
lsMALIBU, Calif. — The No. 28 Pepperdine men’s tennis team will take center stage to play in the 2025 UTR Sports College Championships at the BNP, held in Indian Wells, Calif. starting this Friday.
The Waves will face No. 14 Baylor in the first-round match on Friday at 9:30 a.m. PT, then face either No. 26 Princeton or No. 45 Arizona State on Sunday. All pertinent information can be found on the men’s tennis team’s schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
MATCH 17: #28 Pepperdine (9-5) vs. #14 Baylor (12-6) | Friday, March 14 | 9:30 a.m. PT | Indian Wells Tennis Garden | Indian Wells, Calif.
SCOUTING THE WAVES
Riding a three-match win streak against top-75 teams, the No. 28 Pepperdine Waves are ready to ramp up competition over the next two weeks before beginning West Coast Conference play.
A top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament is still attainable for the Waves, and their best chance at bolstering their postseason resume will be against the No. 14 Baylor Bears. So far, Pepperdine is one of the most battle-tested teams outside the Power-4 ranks: They’ve faced five top-25 teams, 12 squads that made the NCAA Tournament and all but two of their opponents are currently in the top-75 rankings.
Head coach Adam Schaechterle‘s squad comes into this weekend’s tournament having won four of its last five matches — and the lone loss was to the defending national champion TCU Horned Frogs. Over the last three matches, the Waves have gained confidence across the board and have handled business against three teams with postseason aspirations.
Thankfully for the Waves, four players carry multi-match win streaks heading into this weekend. Freshman Lasse Poertner, who plays at the fourth position, won his last four matches in straight sets. His last three have been routine wins. After being robbed of a career-changing win over No. 2 Pedro Vives in the TCU match, All-American Maxi Homberg has won his last three matches in straight-sets, rising up to No. 47 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association singles rankings. Sophomore Edward Winter, the nation’s No. 69 singles player, has also won his last three matches, while freshman David Fix won his last two.
Despite having five freshman on the roster, Pepperdine’s lineup has been consistent all year in singles and doubles.
The Waves’ top doubles team, Edward and Hugh Winter, picked up their first nationally ranked win yesterday with a 7-5 win over Karim Al-Amin and Ondrej Horak to clinch the doubles point against Middle Tennessee State. That win could be a much needed breakthrough for the team, which had most of its matches go unfinished so far.
Part of this is due to their teammates. No. 72 Linus Carlsson Halldin and Maxi Homberg give the Waves an experienced, well-rounded team at the second position, while Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship finalists Lasse Poertner and Aleksa Pisaric look like rising stars at the third spot. Lest they be overlooked as freshmen beating up on lesser opponents, Pisaric and Poertner have a 10-2 record with wins over teams from Arizona, Texas A&M, UCLA and USC.
This week’s trip to the desert will be a revenge tour, of sorts, for the Waves. At this tournament in 2023, the Waves fell to No. 8 USC 4-3 in front of a crowd of hundreds of tennis fans. Pepperdine also trails the all-time series with Baylor 4-9 and is looking to snap a three-match losing skid against the Bears.
ACROSS THE NET
Ranked No. 14 in the latest ITA polls with a 12-6 record, the Baylor Bears aim to stay in Waco for the entirety of the postseason. Right now, the Bears are in a good position to improve on last year’s NCAA Tournament run, which ended with a 4-1 loss to San Diego in the first round.
The Bears are red-hot going into this weekend in Indian Wells, having won their last five matches — three of which were shutouts. Their resume includes top-25 wins over Duke and Illinois in the non-conference slate, while all of their losses have been against top-10 teams.
Baylor could have one of the nation’s best doubles lineups outside of the ACC and SEC. The Bears sent two doubles teams to the NCAAs this past fall: No. 15 Oskar Brostrom Poulsen and Marko Miladinovic, plus No. 25 Devin Badenorst and Zsombor Velcz. Yet the pairing of No. 79 Badenhorst and Luc Koenig lead the team with an 8-2 record at the second position. All told, the Bears have four different ranked doubles teams, which has helped them win the doubles point in 12 of their 18 matches.
In singles, Baylor has three nationally ranked players: No. 40 Badenhorst, No. 96 Brostrom Poulsen and No. 99 Velcz. While Badenhorst and Brostrom Poulsen own the top two positions on the singles ladder, Velcz has split time at the third and fourth positions. However, Baylor excels in the back half of the lineup. Alexandru Chirita leads the team with an 11-2 record and has helped the Bears post an impressive .917 win percentage at the fifth position, while graduate student Serbian Marko Miladinovic leads the charge at the sixth position. Baylor has experience and talent all across the lineup, which will make them a tough out this weekend.
WHAT’S NEXT
Pepperdine wraps up the UTR Sports Collegiate Championships against either No. 26 Princeton or No. 45 Arizona State on Sunday. A start time has not been set. All pertinent information can be found on the men’s tennis team’s schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
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