Making its fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the No. 25 Pepperdine men’s tennis team is headed north to Palo Alto, California. The Waves will face Alabama in the first round of the tournament on Friday at 10 a.m.
Pepperdine earned the No. 2 seed in the Palo Alto Regional. Their opponent, No. 3 seed Alabama, received an at-large bid after posting a 12-11 record this season. Alabama is ranked 35th in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings and is led by Filip Planinsek, the 2024 NCAA Singles Champion and a current top-20 player.
If Pepperdine wins on Friday, they will play either the host team, No. 4 overall seed Stanford, or Mountain West champion New Mexico. The second-round match is scheduled for Saturday, May 3 at noon.
This season marks the program’s 43rd NCAA Tournament appearance and the fifth under Director of Tennis Adam Schaechterle. Under his leadership, the Waves have posted postseason wins in three of the last four seasons. Pepperdine finished the regular season with a 16-10 record, which included seven victories over teams that made the NCAA Tournament. They also pulled off two major upsets against Columbia and Texas A&M, both of whom secured top-16 seeds. The Waves were ranked as high as No. 19 in the ITA polls and remained a top-30 team throughout the year.
Palo Alto holds special meaning for Pepperdine men’s tennis. The Waves won their only NCAA national title at Stanford’s Taube Tennis Center in 2006. They also claimed first-round wins at the same venue in 2009 and 2010. This time, the team will compete at Stanford’s new facility, the Taube Pavilion at Arrillaga Tennis Center, which opened earlier this spring.
The 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships will conclude at Baylor University’s Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas, from May 15-18.
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