MALIBU, Calif. – Seventh-ranked San Diego Men's Tennis locked up the outright WCC Regular Season Championship title with a 4-2 win on the road over their rivals, No. 28 Pepperdine on Friday afternoon.
A week after clinching the program's
fourth straight conference title, the Toreros made it yet another stand-alone championship, no sharing of the trophy or 'co-champion' title. USD also claimed it's 22
nd win of the regular season (22-3), the most since 1990 and a program record. San Diego finishes a perfect 7-0 in conference play for the first time since 2022.
"Another heck of a match in Malibu," head coach
Ryan Keckley said, winner of eight regular season conference titles in nine full seasons as head coach of the program. "This team came to play and this win was defined by handling the big moments down the stretch."
The regular season title is not only the fourth-straight WCC Championship for the Toreros, but seventh in the last eight years, 10th in the last 12 years and 13
th overall in program history. USD has topped the Waves in a third-straight match, sixth in the last seven, 9th in the last 11, 15th of the last 18 matchups since 2014.
Next, the Toreros will take on the WCC Tournament back home in San Diego as the No. 1 seed, taking place at the Aztec Tennis Center from Thursday, April 24 to Saturday, April 26. USD is also poised to host the NCAA Tournament first and second rounds for the first time in program history.
The historic victory started with an entertaining doubles point which the hosts were favored to win. The Waves took first advantage, a 6-2 win on court two. USD's national No. 4 duo of All-American juniors
Oliver Tarvet and
Stian Klaassen responded with a calm 6-1 victory on main court over national No. 60 duo of Pepperdine brothers.
That left the doubles point in the hand of the graduating seniors in their last regular season match of the storied careers,
Blake Kasday and
Nikhil Niranjan. The problem was that the pairing was up against a 2-4 deficit. The tandem went on to win four straight games and claim the first point in favor of San Diego.
In singles play, however, Pepperdine flipped the script, taking a 2-1 lead on straight-set wins on courts six and four. That would be quickly evened back out by Klaassen, who claimed a gritty straight set 6-3, 7-5 win on court three.
Tarvet found himself in a similar hole as his senior teammates in doubles, down 2-5 in the first set to ITA No. 25 Edward Winter. The third-ranked star was undeterred, racking off five straight games en-route to a 7-5 first set win and riding the momentum for a 6-3 second set, putting USD back on top, 3-2.
After a match point was fought off by Pepperdine on court two and forced a third set, it was the freshman
Adrien Berrut whose third set wrapped up first. He battled to a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory on court five as his teammates stormed his court, seeing the match clinched at 4-2.
"We didn't play our best tennis, but we competed together as a team and that's what it was going to take to get this road win," Keckley said. "Hats off to Pepperdine. Adam [Schaechterle] does an amazing job with his group, and it is always a battle against the Waves"
Results
No. 7 San Diego 4, No. 28 Pepperdine 2
Doubles
1. #4
Stian Klaassen/
Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #60 Winter,Edward/Winter,Hugh (PEPP) 6-1
2. Homberg,Maxi/Halldin,Linus (PEPP) def.
Adrien Berrut/
Savriyan Danilov (USD) 6-2
3.
Nikhil Niranjan/
Blake Kasday (USD) def. Pisaric,Aleksa/Poertner,Lasse (PEPP) 6-4
Singles
1. #3
Oliver Tarvet (USD) def. #25 Winter,Edward (PEPP) 7-5, 6-3
2. #89 Homberg,Maxi (PEPP) vs. #90
Savriyan Danilov (USD) 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 2-4, unfinished
3.
Stian Klaassen (USD) def. Halldin,Linus (PEPP) 6-3, 7-5
4. Poertner,Lasse (PEPP) def.
Neo Niedner (USD) 6-4, 6-1
5.
Adrien Berrut (USD) def. Pisaric,Aleksa (PEPP) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
6. Fix,David (PEPP) def.
Blake Kasday (USD) 6-2, 6-3
Match Notes:
San Diego 22-3 (7-0 WCC); National ranking #7
Pepperdine 14-9 (4-2 WCC); National ranking #28
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,4,3,1,5)
