Pepperdine pair the first in school history to reach the women’s doubles national championship match
Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, perhaps the best Pepperdine Waves women’s tennis doubles team ever, finished the collegiate tennis season as runners-up.
The duo was defeated by the Georgia Bulldogs’ Aysegul Mert and Dash Vidmanova in the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships’ doubles championship at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on May 25.
Broadus, a junior, and Tjen, a senior, advanced through four rounds of play in the four-day event before falling in the championship match 7-6 (4), 2-6, 1-0 (9). The Waves twosome entered the 32-team tournament as the top-ranked squad.
Mert and Vidmanova had a 3-0 advantage in the first set before Broadus and Tjen held serve in the fourth game. The Waves broke Georgia in the fifth game to put the match on serve. Soon after, both duos held serve before a first-set tiebreaker. Then Georgia seized a 4-0 lead before winning the first set.
The Waves bounced back in the second set. They broke Vidmanova’s serve in the second game, which led to Tjen’s stellar serving. The Waves took double-break lead in the fourth game. They were soon leading 4-2. Tjen and Broadus then held serve and broke their opponents when Mert double-faulted.
In the super-breaker, Vidmanova and Mert grabbed a 5-2 advantage, before Tjen and Broadus stormed back courtesy of a two lobs from Broadus that gave the Waves a 7-6 lead. The Bulldog duo saved a match point with Tjen and Broadus leading 9-8, and eventually won the super-breaker 11-9.
In the their previous match, Broadus and Tjen defeated Tennessee’s Sofia Cabezas and Elza Tomase 6-2, 6-1 to become the first Pepperdine women’s doubles team to reach the national championship match.
The Waves defeated North Carolina’s defending national title pair of Fiona Crowley and Carson Tanguilig 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals matchup against Tennessee. The victory made Broadus and Tjen the first Pepperdine pair ever to make the tournament’s semifinals twice. They made it that distance in the 2022 tournament.
Tjen and Broadus downed Ariana Arseneault and DJ Bennett of Auburn 6-3, 6-4 before beating North Carolina. Pepperdine was never broken and never faced a deuce point during a service game in the first set.
The Waves doubles team began the tournament with a come-from-behind win over California’s Mao Mushika and Hannah Viller Moeller. Broadus and Tjen won the match 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (13).
Broadus and Tjen are the first Waves women’s doubles team to be named All-American three times. The pair had a 35-5 record this season. They never ranked below fourth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
Tjen advanced to the second round the NCAA singles tournament. She defeated Auburn’s Bennett in the first round 6-3, 6-1. Georgia’s Vidmanova beat Tjen in the next round 7-6 (1), 7-5.
Broadus and Waves senior Lisa Zaar were beaten in the singles tournament’s opening round. Broadus was defeated 7-5, 6-4 by Syracuse’s Miyuka Kimoto. Zaar was beat by San Diego State’s Andjela Skrobonja 7-5, 6-1.