By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
Watch out Southland rivals. Pepperdine women’s tennis is on a roll.
The Waves began a string of five home games against Southern California teams when they faced Cal State Northridge Saturday.
On Tuesday they continued the run against the University of San Diego Toreros.
“Our team was really fighting out there,” sophomore Anna Andersson said. “We expected to see a weaker team, but we didn’t win easily. Their ranking wasn’t high, but they had good players.”
Pepperdine swept the doubles competition and took five of the six singles matches.
Freshman Natalie Braverman defeated Tereza Simonyan in the No. 1 singles spot 6-2, 7-5.
Junior Charlotte Vernaz, sophomore Merve Asimgil, junior Karin Schlapbach and sophomore Andersson also won their matches.
Despite the statistics, the Matadors put up a good fight.
“I thought we’d kill North-ridge and they actually turned out to be better than expected,” Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said. “We had to work for all the matches, including the doubles. It was just the kind of competition we needed. The girls need to be pushed and to learn better tennis by playing teams like this.”
Pepperdine continued their winning streak when they met up with the San Diego Toreros on Tuesday at home.
The Waves controlled the courts, winning 6-1.
The victory moved Pepper-dine to 5-1 in dual meet action.
“Since they are in our conference, we’re always pretty fired up to play and beat them,” senior Monika Horvath said.
The Waves lost the doubles portion of the meet, but were able to put that behind them and take all six singles matches.
Braverman won her match 6-0, 6-3 in the No. 1 singles position.
Vernaz and Horvath had fought hard to win in the No. 2 and No. 3 singles positions, Escudero said.
“It’s always good to be able to really focus and execute when you know you are the better team and are expected to win,” Escudero said. “I think they did a great job at that.”
The Toreros lost 16 games in a row last year and only claimed one game in conference play.
They have continued the dismal record with a 1-3 mark this season.
Before important back-to-back matches next week, the Waves have many things to work on.
One of the first things they’ll focus on is improving their doubles play.
“In our doubles competition, we need to play more as a team and less as two singles players,” Andersson said.
The Waves will face off against No. 7 ranked UCLA Feb. 14 and USC the following day.
UCLA will be tough competition for the Waves. In their last meeting, the Bruins overtook the Pepperdine squad 6-1.
“We are looking to see if we can return the favor UCLA handed us a couple weeks ago,” Escudero said. “They know we can take it this time, but we must force the close sets to go our way. It is never over until the last player has left the court.”
February 06, 2003
