Catching the Waves

Men’s Tennis takes down no. 23 Pepperdine to top WCC on Senior Day

MARI OLSON / SPORTS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

Emotions and energy ran high at the Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center last Saturday, April 16, as the no. 22 University of San Diego Toreros faced off against the no. 23 Pepperdine University Waves. The battle was hard fought and lasted nearly three hours, but the Toreros came out on top, 4-1. 

Pepperdine was picked to finish first in the West Coast Conference (WCC) in the preseason coaches’ poll, while USD was predicted to come in second. The Toreros have been challenging that placement all season, coming into the match on Saturday undefeated in conference play and ready to work hard to overtake the Waves. 

Head coach Ryan Keckley discussed the team’s expectations before the contest. 

“We’ve talked a lot about taking punches, about receiving punches, about giving punches, and we knew it was going to be that kind of match. We knew it was going to be tough,” Keckley said. 

The three doubles matches were the first to be played, and they were nothing if not entertaining. Fifth years August Holmgren and Gui Osorio were on court one for the Toreros, senior Will Davies and first-year Iiro Vasa played on court two, and rounding out the doubles teams were redshirt senior David Norfeldt and redshirt sophomore Marvin Schaber. 

All three doubles contests were hard fought and high energy. Schaber and Norfeldt took their set 6-4, but the tough competition from the Waves saw Davies and Vasa drop their set, 4-6. Holmgren and Osorio fought it out until the very end, but Pepperdine ended up with the first point of the match as the fifth-years went down 6-7.  

Keckley was happy with his team’s resilience during the doubles matches. 

“I thought we did a great job with doubles, we came out firing, and I was a little disappointed we didn’t get it,” Keckley said. 

After a quick break, the singles matches began. Redshirt sophomore Sacchitt Sharrma and Norfeldt won their matches on courts three and four, respectively, relatively quickly. Sharrma won 6-1, 6-4 while Norfeldt was successful over Vasa’s older brother, Pepperdine graduate student Eero Vasa, 6-3, 6-1. 

USD was up 2-1 after Sharrma and Norfeldt’s wins, but the other matches were still in full swing. 

No. 5 Holmgren, on court one, was involved in a tough battle against Pepperdine’s senior Daniel De Jonge, currently ranked no. 15. Holmgren jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first set, but De Jonge managed to get himself back into it by winning the next three points in a row. 

Holmgren was able to exploit De Jonge’s tense style of play and won the first set 7-5. The second set had a similar initial profile, with Holmgren going up 3-0 early, but De Jonge didn’t give up easily and fought his way back yet again. Holmgren stood his ground, played his game, and won the second set 6-3 to give USD a 3-1 lead on the day. 

Davies and Vasa both had to play three sets. Vasa won the first set 6-3 but dropped the second set 5-7, while Davies went down in set one 1-6 but stormed back to win the second set 6-1. 

The back courts were electric as Vasa and Davies fought through the third sets. The rest of their teammates chanted and cheered, yelling, “whose house? Our house!” and singing their signature ditty as the San Diego boys did “make all the noise.” 

Finally, after nearly three hours of play, Davies won the final point for the Toreros, beating his opponent 1-6, 6-1, 6-1. Davies collapsed on the court as his teammates, exhilarated, ran over and jumped into a pile on top of him. 

Davies was thrilled to provide the winning point for USD over their closest conference rivals. 

“It’s obviously an amazing feeling,” Davies said. “After the first set I definitely didn’t expect to be in that position. I knew the rest of the guys were doing a great job, and just had to kind of ride the wave, no pun intended!” 

Keckley was also very pleased with how his team bounced back after the doubles loss. 

“I always talk to my guys about how there’s four quarters of tennis, there’s the doubles point and then there’s the initial second quarter momentum push,” Keckley said. “That second quarter we stormed it and we made it a little bit too uncomfortable for them to storm back.” 

Keckley did recognize that the Toreros had a small leg up on Pepperdine during the match, even if the Waves were an incredibly tough team to play. 

“We just knew at home, with the fans, on senior day, that those little advantages would push us over the edge,” Keckley said. “This is an extremely well coached team, disciplined team, they embody a lot of the same items that we really value in this program. So we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but those little advantages that we didn’t give away really helped us get this one.”

Davies talked about how important the whole team has been in getting the Toreros to where they are at this point in the season. 

“We’ve got a great team culture here and I think that’s brought us quite a few wins along the way. Everyone puts in so much hard work throughout the week. I think hard work pays off in the end and we’ve managed to be on top in a lot of the battles that we’ve had,” Davies said. 

After the match, the team and the fans recognized the five graduating members of the men’s tennis team for Senior Day. 

Osorio, Holmgren, Davies, Norfeldt, and Alex Stater were all celebrated with framed photographs to commemorate their time at USD and their contributions to their team’s success. 

USD Men’s Tennis will look to keep their momentum going as the season winds down and WCC Championships on April 28 through 30 get closer. Keckley knows that the hardest part of the season isn’t over yet. 

“We’ve got a target on our back, that’s for sure. We’ll see Pepperdine in the conference championships, hopefully, if we can both get there, and it’s going to be an absolute war,” Keckley said. “I’ve always said it’s hard to beat a good team twice, and there’s no exception for that.” 

Before the championship games, though, the Toreros have two final WCC matches on the road. USD will take on the University of the Pacific on Saturday, April 23, and Saint Mary’s College the following day. 

The Toreros are currently 7-0 in WCC play, and will work hard to finish the regular season undefeated in conference.