The Pepperdine Waves women’s tennis team served, lobbed, and hit balls past the outstretched rackets of opponents en route to a pair of home victories last week.
The squad, ranked sixth nationally, downed BYU 7-0 on March 12 and Princeton 6-1 two days earlier at the Ralph-Straus Tennis Center on Pepperdine’s campus.
The victories gave the Waves a 9-3 record heading into their home match against USC on Saturday.
Pepperdine dominated in singles and doubles play in both victories.
Junior Anastasia Iamachkine and sophomore Nikki Redelijk won the first doubles match against BYU with a 6-2 score. Freshman Savanah Broadus and sophomore Janice Tjen, the ninth-ranked doubles team in the country, also won their match 6-2.
Tjen, ranked 88th in singles, picked the first of Pepperdine’s six singles victories. She won 6-0, 6-2. Then Broadus garnered a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Redelijk’s 6-1, 6-3 win clinched the win for Pepperdine.
Singles wins by Iamachkine, junior Lisa Zaar, and graduate student Victoria Flores, ranked 48th, were the icing on the cake for Pepperdine. Iamachkine won 6-3, 6-4; Zaar won 7-5, 6-0; and Flores won 4-6, 7-6 (1), [10-5].
Against Princeton, Iamachkine and Taisiya Pachkaleva, a sophomore, paired up for a 6-2 win in doubles, while Redelijk and Tjen had a 6-4 win.
In singles, Zaar had a 6-0, 5-7, [10-7] win, and Flores won 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Iamchkine was a 6-1, 6-3 winner, and Tjen’s victory was 6-4,6-1. Redelijk clinched the match win for the Waves with a 6-4, 6-0 triumph.
