Men’s Tennis Chooses Starkville Regional for the ITA Kickoff Weekend – Pepperdine University Athletics

MALIBU Calif. — Part of the Pepperdine men’s tennis team’s 2024-25 schedule was determined on Wednesday, as the Waves chose to play in the Starkville (Miss.) Regional of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend, which will take place Jan. 24-27, 2025.

The Waves are the 4-seed in the Starkville Regional and will play 1-seed and host team Mississippi State in the first round. NC State and LSU will join Pepperdine as the 2- and 3-seeds, respectively. All four teams in the Starkville Regional made the NCAA Tournament this past May.

Debuting a new tournament format next season, 56 teams will compete at 14 host sites for the chance to make the final site of the ITA National Indoor Championships, which will be jointly held at Baylor and SMU in Feb. 2025. The opening 14 host sites were determined by the top 14 teams in the final ITA team rankings, and then other teams who wished to participate in the event filled out the rest of the field by selecting a host site.

This will be Pepperdine’s first ITA Kickoff Weekend appearance since 2023 when the Waves faced Texas A&M and Georgia Tech at the Palo Alto Regional. Pepperdine is 2-3 all-time against Mississippi State, yet hasn’t played the Bulldogs since 2003. However, the men’s tennis program does have a tie to Starkville, as current associate head coach Tassilo Schmid played college tennis at Mississippi State for two seasons.

Pepperdine will aim for its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024-25 after going 14-12 and winning a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title this past season.