Since Feb. 25 the No.-12 men’s tennis team had defeated every opponent it played. The Waves were sitting on a five-match winning streak and had compiled a combined score of 29-6.
Unfortunately the Waves could not continue when they took the court against Florida State on Thursday March 12. In a hotly-contested match that pitted two of the nation’s top 20 teams against one another emotions ran high. In the end Pepperdine lost a heartbreaker 4-3 on a controversial call.
In doubles senior Omar Altmann and junior Bassam Beidas continued to display their dominance defeating Jean-Yves Aubone and Vahid Mirzadeh 8-5. The victory ran the doubles teams’ overall record to 16-2.
However the strong play ended there. Freshmen Alex Llompart and Hugh Clarke were upended by Andrew Bailey and Maciek Sykut 8-3. Junior Moodi Kamel and sophomore Stuart Keplar also came up short losing 8-4 to give Florida State the early 1-0 lead.
“I think we didn’t play as well as we could have as a team Beidas said. In doubles particularly we didn’t get off to the start we would have liked to. We felt like we could have won on all three courts but they bettered our intensity and focus and came away with the doubles point.”
In singles the Waves quickly found themselves in a big hole down 3-0. Clarke was a bit overwhelmed by Florida State’s Chris Cloer losing 6-4 6-0 on court 5 and No.-38 Altmann was knocked off by No.-42 Clint Bowles 6-3 6-3 in straight sets. Pepperdine dug deep and came right back with a 6-1 7-6 (3) win by Llompart and a 7-6 (3) 6-2 win by sophomore Alejandro Moreno.
“We fought well and came back from 0-3 to even it at 3-all but I think we played bad doubles and that killed us Moreno said.
With the score knotted at 3, and the team victory within its grasp, everything came down to Kamel on court 4. Kamel dropped the first set, 4-6, but bounced back to grab the second set, 6-4. In the third set Kamel was up 5-4, until Vahid Mirzadeh broke his serve to tie the match at 5-5. Mirzadeh took the ensuing game, putting Florida State up 6-5.
In the final game, at 30-30, Kamel called a shot out but was overruled by the official. This sent the game to 40-30. The official, however, went on to penalize Kamel and gave Mirzadeh an overrule penalty point. That was all Mirzadeh needed, and, without another shot hit, the visiting Seminoles escaped with the team win, 4-3.
It was more just shock really said Beidas, after watching his team fall because of an official’s ruling. You never believe that sort of thing will happen.” As the Waves pick up the pieces from the heartbreaking loss they begin to prepare for one of the biggest matches of the year. Pepperdine will be looking for revenge when it plays host to the No.-1 Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday at 1 p.m. at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. The Waves lost 4-2 to the Buckeyes in February and Beidas said his team will not let Ohio St. out of Malibu without a fight. “Ohio State is a top team and we can’t sit out there all day just waiting for them to miss because they won’t Beidas said. We need to bring it right from the first point.”