Australian native is the third Pepperdine tennis player ever to be named for the award
Pepperdine Waves men’s tennis player Edward Winter was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southwest Regional Rookie of the Year on June 12.
Winter, from Adelaide, Australia, played at the first position in every dual match he stepped on the court. He also had six victories over ranked opponents.
Winter began the Waves’ spring campaign with victories over Michigan State’s Ronnie Hohmann III, ranked 12th in singles at the time, and UC Santa Barbara’s Pablo Masjuan, who was slotted at 20th.
Winter secured a comeback, three-set victory over Peter Alam of Pacific to win a match and help Pepperdine grab a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season championship.
The ITA announces regional award and national award winners — which includes players and coaches — at the end of every college tennis season. The honors include Wilson ITA Coach of the Year, ITA Assistant Coach of the Year, ITA Player to Watch, ITA Rookie of the Year, ITA Most Improved Senior, ITA Senior Player of the Year, ITA Community Service Award, and the Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship honor.
Winter was one of nine recipients of a Southwest Regional Award. The others were from schools including Arizona, San Diego, and UCLA.
Winter was also the WCC Freshman of the Year and a first-team all-WCC singles player and second-team all-conference doubles player.
He began his freshman campaign as one of the ITA’s Top 10 newcomers. The first-year Wave was a top 60 singles player all season and ranked as high as 23rd in the ITA singles polls. Winter was the WCC Singles Player of the Week twice and the WCC Doubles Team of the Week once.
Winter competed in the NCAA Singles Tournament in May. He was defeated in the opening round by Tennessee’sShunsuke Mitsui, an All-American.
Winter is the third Pepperdine player ever to be named the ITA Southwest Regional Rookie of the Year. Daniel De Jonge received the title in 2020, and Sebastian Fanselow was tapped for the honor a decade earlier.
