MALIBU, Calif. - The #10 Pepperdine men’s tennis team vies for its 40th West Coast Conference Tournament Championship this weekend, April 26-27, at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. The Waves are the No. 1 seed after winning the regular-season crown with a perfect 8-0 record.

 

THE BRACKET - With the No. 1 seed, the Waves received a double bye into the semifinal round ... Pepperdine will face the either No. 4 Santa Clara, No. 9 Gonzaga, No. 5 San Francisco or No. 8 LMU ... BYU earned the No. 2 seed and also received a bye into the semifinals ... The title match is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

 

COVERAGE - Live scores coverage, schedules, brackets and more can be found at the West Coast Conference Tournament Central ... Recaps and video highlights can be found at PepperdineSports.com at the end of each day.

 

LOOKING BACK - The Waves celebrated Senior Day, and the careers of Sebastian Fanselow, Finn Tearney and Mousheg Hovhannisyan, last week Friday prior the start of the match vs. BYU ... Although the Cougars struck first and won the doubles point, Pepperdine fired back and swept the singles competition to finish the regular season with a perfect 8-0 WCC record.

 

RANKINGS - The Waves are currently ranked #10 in the team rankings, and have reached as high as #5 ... Sebastian Fanselow is currently ranked #8 in singles after reaching as high as #4 ... Francis Alcantara broke into the rankings on Feb. 26, reached as high as #53 and currently sits at #99 ... Alex Sarkissian entered earned a season-best ranking of #60 on April 23 ... Finn Tearney made his first rankings appearance of 2013 at #105, reached as high as #77 and currently sits at #103 ... Tearney and Alcantara also broke into the doubles rankings on Feb. 26 at #27 and currently rank #41 ... For complete ITA team, singles and doubles rankings, visit: http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/Rankings.htm

 

WCC TOURNAMENT HISTORY - The Waves have won every WCC Tournament they have competed in since 1991 ... Since 1958, Pepperdine has placed first 39 official times and second the remaining 12.

 

THE LINEUP - The doubles lineup has seen several changes over that past few weeks ... Five different pairs have seen action at No. 1, most recently Sebastian Fanselow and Francis Alcantara ... Finn Tearney and Alex Sarkissian have taken up residence in the No. 2 spot in the lineup ... David Sofaer and Mousheg Hovhannisyan have held down the No. 3 spot in the doubles lineup for the majority of the season ... In singles Fanselow has held down the top spot, while Tearney, Sarkissian and Alcantara, rotate between the 2-4 spots ... Hovhannisyan and Sofaer typically play at No. 5 and No. 6, respectively ... Kento Tanaka-Tamaki and Damian Gryzelko have also made their way into the doubles and singles rotation.

 

LOOKING FARTHER BACK - The Waves played four matches in six days from April 10-15 ... Pepperdine began the week in Palo Alto, Calif. and clinched the win vs. the Cardinal at 4-2 before Stanford captured the final point of the afternoon ... Pepperdine hosted Saint Mary’s at the Riviera Country Club on Friday and emerged with a 7-0 shutout ... The next day the Waves downed San Diego, 5-2, at home ... The Waves nearly pulled off the upset vs. #2 UCLA on Monday but fell just short ... Pepperdine won the doubles point via Sebastian Fanselow and Francis Alcantara’s 9-8 (5) win at No. 1 doubles ... After the Bruins fought back in singles and took a 3-1 lead, Alex Sarkissian (7-5, 6-4) and Fanselow (4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3)) won to knot the score at 3-3 ... David Sofaer lost a heart breaking three-set decision in the tiebreaker to Clay Thompson and UCLA escaped Malibu with the ‘W’ ... The Waves were playing without Finn Tearney, who normally holds down the No. 2 spot in the singles lineup and either plays No. 1 or No. 2 in doubles.

 

WCC ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM - For the second-straight season, David Sofaer was named a West Coast Conference All-Academic team selection for his successes both in classroom and on the court ... Sofaer boasts a GPA of 3.50 and is an advertising major.

 

LOOKING AHEAD - The NCAA Championship selection show is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30 and can be seen at NCAA.com ... If the Waves win the WCC Championship, they would receive an automatic bid into the 64-team tournament ... The singles and doubles brackets will also be announced that day ... The first and second rounds of the team competition will take place at 16 to-be-determined campus sits on May 10-12 ... The remainder of the team competition, as well as the singles and doubles championships, will play out on May 16-27 at the Khan Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Illinois.

 

TWITTER - Fans can follow the Waves on Twitter @PeppTennis or @PepperdineWaves and “like” us on Facebook by searching for Pepperdine Athletics.

 

COME ONE COME ALL - Admission to all regular-season men’s and women’s tennis matches at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center is FREE.

 

WCC PLAYER OF THE MONTH - Sebastian Fanselow was the West Coast Conference singles player of the month for November, after his run at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship, and again in February ... Mousheg Hovhannisyan and David Sofaer were awarded January Doubles Team of the Month honors after opening the season with back-to-back victories ... Finn Tearney and Francis Alcantara were announced as February’s WCC Doubles Team of the Month after being honored as All-Tournament performers at the ITA National Indoor Team Championship.

 

Adam Steinberg - Now in his 11th season as head coach of the Waves, Adam Steinberg boasts career record of 285-151 including a 155-72 mark at Pepperdine. Since setting foot on the Malibu campus in 2003, Steinberg has captured six WCC conference championships, six appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and an NCAA Championship crown in 2006. He has tutored 16 Waves to All-American status, and has been named WCC Coach of the Year six times. Prior to coming to Pepperdine, Steinberg served as the head coach at Alabama and St. John’s for five seasons apiece.

 

ABOUT PEPPERDINE - Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men’s sports - one of just 16 schools to have accomplished this feat - and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest enrollment and is the only school not in a major conference. Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation’s most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #54 overall on U.S. News and World Report’s list of America’s best colleges.