Pepperdine Women’s Tennis took home nine victories at the Women of Troy Invite at the University of Southern California from Oct. 4 to Oct 6.
Four Waves participated in the tournament, sophomore Vivian Yang, freshmen Duru Söke, Alexia Harmon and Taylor Goetz.
The underclassmen excelled at the tournament, with the three freshmen combining for nine singles and doubles wins over the weekend against mostly Power-4 schools.
The Waves dominated in doubles, going 4-0 on the weekend while using three different combinations between the four players.
Goetz and Söke were the most successful duo of the weekend going 2-0 against the University of Tennessee and USC.
Söke was the only Wave to maintain an undefeated record in doubles during the weekend, going 3-0 against University of Wisconsin, Tennessee, and USC.
This tournament gave the young recruiting class practice against some of the nation’s top teams, as Harmon is the No.17 Division I newcomer in the nation and the rest of the players have yet to be ranked.
Harmon and Yang swept Tennessee 6-0 Oct. 4 in the first round of doubles, while Goetz and Söke defeated Wisconsin 6-4 in a closer matchup.
The singles matches were strong for the Waves on Oct. 4, boasting a 3-1 record with Söke, Harmon and Goetz all recording wins against Wisconsin once and Brigham Young University twice.
The Waves struggled in singles matches Oct. 5, going 1-2 on the day, with the lone win for Harmon (7-6, 6-4) against Tennessee.
The Waves continued their doubles success with Harmon and Söke recording a win against Tennessee, 6-4.
The Waves moved into the last day with seven total sets won in the tournament, before recording another two on the final day.
Goetz and Söke defeated USC 6-1 in doubles, while Goetz recorded another win against the University of California, Santa Barbara 6-4 in both sets.
This was the first collegiate appearance for Harmon, while Goetz and Söke already made their debuts in the Battle in the Bay Classic in mid-September.
Harmon only lost one set to USC’s freshman Jana Hossam, who went undefeated at the tournament, recording five wins between both singles and doubles.
USC claimed both the singles and doubles crown, with Hossam taking the singles and senior Sloane Morra and freshman Anya Murthy taking the doubles.
The young Waves team competed with and beat some of the most experienced Power-4 conference players, including BYU senior Kendall Kovick and UCSB graduate student Ali Benedetto.
Benedetto ranked No. 11 in the Northeast Regional rankings at Brown University before going to UCSB while Kovick ranked No. 17 in the Mountain Regional rankings.
The Waves’ next tournament will be the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals in San Diego at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego from Oct. 17 to Oct. 22.
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Email Shane Stephens: shane.stephens@pepperdine.edu
