MALIBU, Calif. – The fourth-ranked Pepperdine women's tennis team invites fifth-ranked UCLA to Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Friday for a top five SoCal showdown. Then, the Waves will head into town to face #21 USC on the Trojans' turf for the third matchup between the two teams this season.
MATCH #9: #4 Pepperdine (6-2) vs #5 UCLA (8-2) | Friday, March 12 | 1 p.m. | Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center | Live Stream & Scoring
MATCH #10: #4 Pepperdine (6-2) vs #21 USC (7-4) | Sunday, March 14 | 12 p.m. | Marks Tennis Stadium | Live Stream & Scoring
SCOUTING THE BRUINS
Powerhouse UCLA has only two losses this season: a 4-2 dip to #2 Texas and a 4-3 heartbreaker to #17 Cal. Most notably, UCLA defeated Pepperdine 4-2 in February during the ITA National Indoors. Since then, the Bruins have accrued wins over San Diego, #21 USC, Washington and Washington State.
The highest-ranked Bruin is currently Abbey Forbes at #7, followed by #9 Elysia Bolton, #19 Jada Hart, #113 Sasha Vagramov and #119 Vanessa Ong. On the doubles side, the pair of Hart and Bolton sits atop the rankings at #1 as the only ranked tandem.
Friday's match will mark two of three matchups between the Waves and UCLA this season. Since 2018, Pepperdine has won two and lost two against the Bruins.
SCOUTING THE TROJANS
Familiar foe USC stands 7-4 on the season with two of those losses coming by the hands of the Waves. During the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Malibu, Pepperdine defeated the Trojans 4-2 in the championship round.
Most recently, the Waves beat the then-#16 Trojans in a 4-3 sprint that saw #88 Taisiya Pachkaleva clinch the match on court four, going 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Danielle Willson.
Ranked for USC is #22 Angela Kulikov, #48 Eryn Cayetano and #103 Naomi Cheong. Kulikov and Cayetano are the lone ranked doubles tandem at #12.
SURF REPORT
Since their last meeting with USC, the Waves have not dropped a court in a 4-0 win over #13 Oklahoma State and a 7-0 blanking of UCSB both in Malibu.
#33 Jessica Failla has not dropped a match this season, including multiple "upsets" over the likes of USC's #48 Cayetano and #22 Kulikov, Georgia Tech's #13 Jones and UCLA's #7 Abbey Forbes. Failla was en route to defeating North Carolina's #3 Alexa Graham in straight sets when the match was clinched.
PEPP IN THE RANKS
#1 Ashley Lahey
#12 Shiori Fukuda
#33 Jessica Failla
#45 Lexi Ryngler
#88 Taisiya Pachkaleva
