By Cheri Phillips
Staff Writer
Against the backdrop of a beautiful afternoon that would have reminded spectators of summer except for gusty winds, the No. 11-ranked men’s tennis team was crowned the champion of its own invitational Sunday.
The Waves hosted No. 33 Arizona State University, No. 31 Texas Christian University and the University of Washington over the weekend at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center in Malibu.
The heavily favored Waves took control of TCU, shutting them out 4-0 in the championship match.
In the Waves’ first match, on Saturday, they beat Arizona 4-0.
“It was nice to win the tournament,” head coach Peter Smith said. “It is always a little harder to do something when it is so expected of you. That also sometimes makes it not that exciting.”
The Waves improved their record to 12-4 on the season and a 10-1 at the Ralph-Straus Tennis Center this year. The Horned Frogs dropped to 8-5.
In tournament play at the Pepperdine Invitational, which is different than typical dual match play, the winner was decided by the first team to claim four points. The last three singles matches still in competition would be suspended if a team had won the first four matches.
Normally in regulation matches all singles play would continue until a winner was determined.
In both weekend matches, Pepperdine won the first four singles matches and did not have to complete the other three.
Showing the strength of team unity, each match it was a different group of players who propelled the Waves on to victory. When players faltered a bit, their teammates would step up to finish the job early.
Against TCU, after the doubles point was claimed by the Waves, No. 1 singles player Al Garland crushed Fabrizio Sestini, 6-2, 6-2.
No. 5 Johan Berg pulled out a win over Daniel Waynberg 6-4, 6-3 and No. 6 Diego Acuna defeated Daniel Schoten 6-4, 6-2.
The previous afternoon, the Waves won the doubles point against ASU as they had on Sunday.
No. 2 Stefan Suter rounded it out by defeating Clint Lechter 6-2, 6-2, Berg overcame Chris Stewart, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, and No. 3 Calle Hansen demolished Pim Van Mele, 6-0, 6-2.
“I felt very good,” Hansen said. “My match on Saturday was my best ever at Pepperdine. I was playing very offensive while going into the net a lot. I played exactly the game I was supposed to play.”
ASU dropped to 7-5 with the loss.
Today the Waves are in the Lone Star state where they will lock horns with No. 9 University of Texas at Austin.
Saturday they will take on No. 10 Texas A&M. The Waves, at No.11, should play at least even with the two teams so close to them in the rankings.
“The Texas trip will be very exciting to go down and play in the environment that is going to be there,” Smith said. “The Longhorns and the Aggies will both have great crowds that will get in our face and make it more of a challenge for us. That will be fun.”
Suter agreed with his coach.
“It is going to be a really tough crowd, with a lot of people against us,” Suter continued. “Even though we are a better skilled team, we have to stay strong mentally. Because the more mentally tough team will win.”
March 28, 2002