SAN DIEGO – In a historic senior day at the Hogan Tennis Center, it was San Diego Women's Tennis' seniors who were heroes in the Toreros first win over Pepperdine in 13 years, which clinched the program's first WCC regular season title.
A narrow 4-3 upset by No. 57 USD of the 26th-ranked Waves, the two seniors being celebrated – Claudia de las Heras and Kailey Evans – contributed to three of the Toreros four points. It all started, and ended, with the duo in their last match together at home; they dominated to kick off doubles at 6-1, then won their respective singles matches on the top two courts. De las Heras' win came as the last woman standing in a 3-3 match, all eyes and pressure on her on main court after having dropped a second set 1-6.
After having placed second in the conference 21 times, the Toreros have broken through to the top in head coach
Nadia Abdala's third season at the helm, having battled injury woes throughout the season. It snaps an 83-match WCC win streak by Pepperdine and USD's first win in the rivalry since the 2012 WCC Tournament final.
The Toreros have won the doubles point in each of their five wins at the start of conference play, none bigger, more dramatic and none more decisive than Saturday's. The ITA No. 34 Evans and de las Heras' win on court one was soon canceled out by a Pepperdine pairing on court two.
That left the doubles point in the hands of freshman
Anni Puls and sophomore
Kristina Nordikyan. The problem was the tandem was down 3-5. They would then go on to fight off a remarkable five match points, winning four straight games to put USD on the board first. The unlikely win keeps the pair undefeated together.
To start singles play, it was another freshman,
Hannah Read, who doubled USD's lead. Her 6-1, 6-3 win marks her sixth straight in singles.
The visiting Waves would then grab a point back, however, by way of a 6-1, 6-3 win of their own on court six. Evans then answered right back with a straight-set 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 2 singles, over the ITA 67th-ranked player, in her last match on America's Most Beautiful Campus to push the lead back to two at 3-1.
With their backs against the wall, Pepperdine didn't give up. Despite fights in the first set from Nordikyan and late in the second set from Puls, they both would lose their matches at No. 3 and No. 5 singles respectively, seeing the score knotted at three.
And so, all attention turned to de las Heras on court one. The Barcelona native had won the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-5), but lost the momentum and was pummeled in the second set, 1-6. She was undeterred. With over 375 fans in the crowd and her teammates behind her, she rolled out a 6-1 win in the third set to clinch the win and the championship, her teammates storming the court as she broke into tears.
Up Next
The Toreros will look to solidify their WCC regular season championship as a standalone title, hitting the road to face unranked Washington State who are 14-7 and 9-0 in Pullman, Wash. Thereafter, USD will return the America's Finest City for the WCC Tournament being played at Aztec Tennis Center.
Senior Day Specs
Claudia de Las Heras
"Coming to San Diego from Barcelona, Spain, "Clau" is a true Torero, having been an integral part of the lineup in each of her four years, and collecting over 70 career collegiate wins in singles alone. She's been in the top-50 of the ITA's top-ranked singles players and has been ranked as high as 19th in the country in doubles with fellow senior
Kailey Evans. After a 20-win season as a freshman, and 16 as a sophomore, she rebounded with another 20 last season, garnering ITA Southwest Region Most Improved Player. In 2023 she was named Second Team All-WCC, and in 2024, First Team All-WCC. She's collected multiple conference player of the week honors in both singles and doubles.
Claudia has excelled in the classroom, too. A prestigious ITA Scholar-Athlete Award recipient that speaks four languages, she is currently finishing her degree double-majoring in international business and marketing while also minoring in French.
Cluadia's favorite USD memories are clinching a 4-3 win against USC and beating number two Texas A&M. Our favorite memories with Claudia are all of the others in between, over the last four years."
Kailey Evans
"Hailing from Ennis, Texas, Kailey is finishing her degree majoring in communications with a minor in psychology. After transferring from Texas Tech in 2022, Kailey has flourished tremendously, both off and on the court, since coming to the University of San Diego.
Kailey says she chose USD because of how kind coach
Nadia Abdala was to her and how much she believed in her. And well, Coach Abdala had good reason to believe in Kailey.
Also coming up as one of the top juniors in the nation, Kailey has only gotten better each year. After breaching the ITA rankings as a sophomore, she led her team in singles wins in three straight seasons and put up an excellent 12-1 record last season before suffering an injury.
This season, she's been ranked in the top-35 all spring, a career-high 26th nationally. Kailey's also been ranked in doubles with five different teammates, as high as 12th in all of college tennis in 2023 with
Elizabeth Goldsmith. The duo became the first in 22 years to reach the round of 16 at the NCAA Doubles Championships. This fall, Kailey made her return to the NCAA Championships, this time in singles. Qualifying on deep runs at the ITA Southwest Regional and ITA All-American Championships, she advanced to the round of 32 at the 2024 NCAA Singles Championships."
Results
No. 57 San Diego 4, No. 26 Pepperdine 3
Doubles
1. #34
Claudia de las Heras/
Kailey Evans (USD) def. Söke, Duru/Scilipoti, Sebastianna (PEPP) 6-1
2. Grechkina, Anastasiia/Harmon, Alexia (PEPP) def.
Hannah Read/
Gabby Gregg (USD) 6-3
3.
Kristina Nordikyan/
Anni Puls (USD) def. Oved, Liam/Yang, Vivian (PEPP) 7-5
Singles
1. #104
Claudia de las Heras (USD) def. Yang, Vivian (PEPP) 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-1
2. #34
Kailey Evans (USD) def. #67 Grechkina, Anastasiia (PEPP) 6-4, 6-3
3. Harmon, Alexia (PEPP) def.
Kristina Nordikyan (USD) 7-5, 6-2
4.
Hannah Read (USD) def. Scilipoti, Sebastianna (PEPP) 6-1, 6-3
5. Söke, Duru (PEPP) def.
Anni Puls (USD) 6-2, 7-5
6. Oved, Liam (PEPP) def.
Gabby Gregg (USD) 6-1, 6-3
Match Notes:
Pepperdine 9-11; National ranking #26
San Diego 10-8; National ranking #57
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (4,6,2,3,5,1)
