College Tennis News - Waves Fall in Semifinals at USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championship

Irvine, Calif. – Finn Tearney and Mousheg Hovhannisyan of the Pepperdine men’s tennis team spent the last four days battling at the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championships at the Anteater Tennis Stadium on the campus of UC Irvine. Their run came to an end today, when the Wave duo lost to the tournament’s top seed in the semifinals.

Tearney (Wellington, New Zealand/Wellington College) and Hovhannisyan (North Hollywood, Calif./Continental Academy), the No. 8 seed overall, eliminated doubles teams from USC and UC Irvine in the opening rounds before facing the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals. The Wave duo outlasted Clarke Spinosa and Thibaut Visy of West Coast Conference rival San Diego 8-6 to advance.

In the semifinals, Tearney and Hovhannisyan went up against the draw’s top seed, Roberto Quiroz and Max de Vroome of USC. After breaking the Trojan’s serve early and taking a 5-2 lead, Pepperdine continued to control the match and maintained the advantage at 6-3.

Quiroz and de Vroome surged forward, however, and won the next five games to edge the Pepperdine duo 8-6.

This was the first time Tearney and Hovhannisyan, both seniors, have teamed up in doubles in their three seasons at Pepperdine.

Hovhannisyan, who has been successful in singles for Pepperdine, has not played extensively in doubles for the Waves. Last season, he registered five wins in seven matches played.

Conversely, Tearney boasts widespread experience and success in doubles. He was 64-38 heading into this season and participated in the NCAA Doubles Championship alongside now graduated Alex Llompart in 2012.

This is the second-straight year Tearney has reached the semifinals of the regional championships having done so in 2011 alongside Hugh Clarke.

The Waves have three tournaments left on the fall schedule, all occurring during the second weekend of November. Pepperdine will send representatives to the Lakewood Ranch Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic (Sarasota, Fla.), Southern California Intercollegiate (Los Angles, Calif.) and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships (Flushing, N.Y.).

USTA/ITA Southwest Regional
Oct 19-23, 2012 at Irvine, Calif. (Anteater Tennis Stadium)
Doubles
R32 Finn Tearney/Mousheg Hovhannisyan (PEP) def. Michael Grant/Jonny Wang (USC) 8-2
R16 Finn Tearney/Mousheg Hovhannisyan (PEP) def. Jacob Jung/Tyler Pham (UC Irvine) 8-6
QF Finn Tearney/Mousheg Hovhannisyan (PEP) def. Clarke Spinosa/Thibaut Visy (San Diego) 8-6
SF Roberto Quiroz/Max de Vroome (USC) def. Finn Tearney/Mousheg Hovhannisyan (PEP) 8-6