No. 21 Pepperdine women’s tennis team secured a significant road victory against No. 12 Texas in Austin on Sunday, winning 5-2 to improve their record to 2-0 for the season.
The Waves lost the doubles point but rebounded by winning five of six singles matches. The highlight came when Živa Falkner clinched the match with her first collegiate singles win, defeating No. 2 Carmen Herea. This contest also marked the first college singles victories for Chantal Sauvant and Shihomi Leong, indicating an immediate impact from the team’s newcomers.
According to head coach Tassilo Schmid, “We knew going on the road to play Texas would be a major challenge and a true test for this young squad. Huge credit to what these girls accomplished this weekend, transitioning from indoors to outdoors is never easy. Today, they truly understood what it means to play for one another and fight for one another, and that’s incredibly powerful. We’ll have another big test next week, and we’ll need to prepare really well to take another step in the right direction as a team.”
In doubles play, Anastasiia Grechkina and Chantal Sauvant won their match on court two (6-4), but Texas took the overall doubles point after prevailing in a tiebreak on court one.
Pepperdine dropped its first singles match but Alexia Harmon responded with a straight-set win on court five (7-5, 6-1). Shihomi Leong followed with a two-set victory (6-3, 6-4) for her first career collegiate singles win.
Sonja Zhiyenbayeva came back after losing her opening set at flight three to win in three sets (2-6, 6-3, 6-3). Shortly afterward, Živa Falkner completed her comeback at flight one against Herea after dropping the first set 0-6 but rallying for wins of 6-2 and 6-4 in the following sets.
Chantal Sauvant closed out her own match at flight four with scores of 6-4, 1-6, and finally sealing it at 6-3—also marking her debut collegiate singles victory.
Harmon and Zhiyenbayeva each start their seasons with two consecutive singles wins through opening weekend matches. All six players in Pepperdine’s singles lineup have now recorded at least one win this season. In doubles competition, Sauvant and Grechkina are also undefeated so far.
Next up for Pepperdine is ITA Kickoff Weekend in Knoxville where they will face Washington before playing either Clemson or Tennessee depending on results. The team that goes undefeated during this event will qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships scheduled from February 6–10 in Chicago.
Pepperdine women’s tennis has appeared in forty NCAA Tournaments since its inception—including twenty-eight consecutive appearances—and has captured thirty-three West Coast Conference championships with an ongoing streak of eleven titles. The program has produced twenty-four All-Americans and frequently advances players into professional ranks following their college careers.
