For the Pepperdine men’s tennis team this week was like a seafood sampler: a little bit of everything. The Waves experienced virtually every potential outcome winning one match losing another and having a third rained out.
On Friday the Waves traveled to the Bay Area to battle Stanford as part of a scheduled two-match road trip. No.-7 Stanford overpowered the young Waves squad winning 6-1.
Pepperdine senior Omar Altmann and junior Bassam Beidas got off to a quick start defeating Richard Wire and Blake Muller (Stanford) in a tight match 8-6. Unfortunately that was the highlight of the day. The freshman duo of Alex Llompart and Hugh Clarke came up a bit short and played a little less inspired tennis falling 8-5.
“As a team we started out really badly in doubles. Most of us didn’t have great energy and weren’t moving well Beidas said. We let [Stanford] get on top of us early and we didn’t start the way we wante_d to.”
The story was relatively the same in singles. Ryan Thacher Stanford’s No.-4 player and the nation’s top recruit of 2009 upended Clarke 6-1 6-3 in straight sets while Altmann fell to Alex Clayton (STAN) 6-2 6-4. Beidas was the lone singles winner for the Waves knocking off Stanford freshman Bradley Klahn 6-4 3-6 10-5.
That was the extent of the success for the Waves on Friday in Palo Alto Calif.
The team traveled across the Bay with a mission to return home with a win. Sadly the Waves had two opponents on Sunday: the Cal Bears and the weather. Rain-soaked courts ended the Bay Area trip early sending the Waves back to Malibu 0-1.
“It was a bummer that the Cal match was cancelled freshman Jenson Turner said. We were all really motivated to play the match after losing to Stanford.”
A few days of rest and preparation proved to be exactly what the Waves needed. On Wednesday the Michigan Wolverines would not leave Malibu with a better record than they entered with. The Waves were dominant in all aspects of their game taking care of business to win 5-2.
Altmann and Beidas cruised to an easy victory destroying Michigan’s top tandem of Mike Sroczynski and Andrew Mazlin 8-1. Consistent serves were the name of the game. In a post-game interview with Beidas assistant coach Nick Carless jumped in to congratulate his player and give him the great news. It turned out Beidas had completed the entire doubles match missing only three first-serves.
“Omar returning well and you hitting your first serves the way you hit them today that’s the key Carless told Beidas.
In the other doubles match of the day sophomore Alejandro Moreno and junior Moodi Kamel won 8-4 to secure the sweep for the Waves.
In singles, the Waves picked up four points on four wins, none bigger than Kamel’s 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Peter Aarts. The Waves (8-5) play host to University of Washington on Sunday, March 1 at 1 p.m.