The Pepperdine men’s tennis team narrowly missed an opportunity to upend the Duke University at its North Carolina campus on Saturday Jan. 29th 2011. The Blue Devils scraped past the Waves in the final of the ITA Kick-Off in the deciding match with a total score of four points for Duke and three for Pepperdine.
The clash between the two teams was expected to generate heat as Pepperdine ranked 21st in the country entered the match with a perfect 3-0 and Duke ranked 14th in the country boasted a 4-0 match record to date. Boosted by excellent play throughout the season thus far and crushing results against Virginia Tech on Friday the Waves seemed poised for an upset.
The Waves opened the day with a shaky 1-2 result in doubles. Duke’s Reid Carleton and Henrique Cunha teamed up to defeat Hugh Clarke and Finn Tearney from Pepperdine (8-4). Sebastian Fanselow and Jenson Turner of Pepperdine evened the score 1-1 beating David Holland and Chris Mengel of Duke (8-6). But Duke won the deciding match as Jared Pinsky and Fred Saba edged past Pepperdine’s Alex Llompart and Alfredo Moreno in the tiebreaker 9-8 (10-8) giving Duke a one point lead as they entered singles play.
In singles play began with Duke’s Jared Pinsky rolling past No. 5 Mousheg Hovhannisyan (6-1) (6-3) countered by Pepperdine’s No. 3 Alex Llompart who marched past Chris Mengel (7-5) (6-2). Fred Saba from Duke beat No. 4 Jenson Turner (6-2) (6-4) and Henrique Cunha scrapped by Pepperdine’s No. 1 Sebastian Fanselow (4-6) (6-2) (6-1). Alfredo Moreno from Pepperdine tried to level the score with a (4-6) (6-3) (1-0) (7-10) win against Luke Marchese and play finally ended as No. 2 Finn Tearney lost a marathon match (4-6) (6-3) (1-0) (16-14) against Reid Carleton. Tied at three matches apiece Duke secured the match with the point that had earned from doubles earlier in the day.
Overall the Waves were generally content with their play at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center but mentioned some aspects of team play that could use improvement.
“As a team we played well for the most part” says Clarke. “We just need to improve our transition game and our volleys at nets. That is going to be a big factor in winning or losing”.
Fanselow shared this sentiment.
“We need to work on finishing off points at the net and doing a better job on low volleys and transition play”.
The Waves also mentioned a need to adjust to the indoor courts.
“We are playing indoors” notes Clarke. ” So they are generally a lot faster than outdoor courts.”
The Waves will play their home-season opener on Saturday Feb. 5 against Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara University.