No. 24 Pepperdine men’s tennis lost to No. 21 USC by a score of 4-2 on Friday afternoon at the David X. Marks Tennis Stadium in Los Angeles. The defeat brings Pepperdine’s season record to 5-4, while USC moves to 7-3.
Pepperdine secured two singles victories during the match. Edward Winter and Lasse Poertner were responsible for those wins, but the team was unable to secure the doubles point as both remaining doubles courts went 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.”
In doubles play, after a loss on court one, Pepperdine pairs Hugh Winter/Edward Winter and Maxi Homberg/Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida pushed their matches into tiebreaks at positions two and three, respectively. However, USC prevailed with a win at position three, giving them an early lead.
USC extended its advantage with a win at position six in singles play before Edward Winter put Pepperdine on the scoreboard by defeating Branko Djuric (6-2, 7-5) at No. 1 singles—a result that marks his fifth singles victory this dual match season.
The Trojans took a 3-1 lead after another win at position five. Lasse Poertner narrowed the gap for Pepperdine by winning his match against Jack McCarthy (7-6 [7-3], 6-2) in straight sets at position three.
With two matches left, both heading into third sets, USC clinched the overall victory when Nathan Trouve defeated Maxi Homberg (6-3, 3-6, 6-3) on court two. Aleksa Pisaric’s match at flight four was abandoned in the third set.
Pepperdine will resume play in two weeks when they begin a five-match road trip starting against No. 12 Columbia on February 27.
Pepperdine men’s tennis has a long history of success that includes an NCAA Championship in 2006 and national titles dating back to its first NAIA Championship in 1952. The program has produced several individual champions and has won numerous conference titles over its history.
