SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine men’s tennis team has been unstoppable, even against UCLA, which had not lost to the Waves in more than five years.
After finishing its nine-straight home matches with nine victories, No.-4 Pepperdine traveled to Los Angeles to have its season’s first away game against No.-8 UCLA on Friday. As more than 250 spectators watched one of the most thrilling college tennis matches of the season, the Waves overcame the Bruins 4-3 to capture their 10th consecutive win since the season opener.
The Bruins dropped 4-2 on the season, while the Waves remained undefeated as they snapped UCLA’s 28-home-match winning streak, which dates back to Mar. 10, 2004.
As usual, Pepperdine took an early lead when it captured a doubles point. In the No.-3 position match, junior Richard Johnson and freshman Omar Altmann overpowered their opponents Mathieu Dehaine and Aaron Yovan.
However, the senior Scott Doerner and sophomore Andre Begemann duo had their first doubles loss for the season in a close match to the Philipp Gruendler and Benjamin Kohlloeffel pair.
The No.-31 doubles team of seniors Pedro Rico and Ivor Lovrak did not let down as they clinched the doubles point, defeating Haythem Abid and Chris Surapol 8-6 to put the Waves up 1-0.
Pepperdine continued its magic in singles, winning in positions two and five for a 3-0 lead. At court two, Rico dominated Abid 6-2, 6-2, which was followed by a victory from Johnson, who put away Jeremy Drean 6-3, 7-5.
UCLA made a come back as the nation’s No.-3 Kohlloeffel gave Doerner his first loss of the season 7-6, 6-1 and Michael Look defeated Altmann in a close match 7-5, 7-6.
With two matches still in play in the third set, the Waves needed to win only one of them to clinch the overall win. The decision weighed on Lovrak after Begmann lost in a close match against Surapol 6-4, 6-7, 6-3.
After sharing the first two sets, the close match between Lovrak and No.-75 Dehaine ended up as one of the most exciting college tennis games. Lovrak lost the first set 4-6 but came back and won the second and the tiebreaker 7-5, 7-6. This win gave Pepperdine a team victory over UCLA.
Although Friday’s victory was the Waves’ first win over the Bruins in more than five years, the players didn’t even play their best, according to Head Coach Adam Steinberg.
“We didn’t play great, but we fought hard,” he said.
He also said since the team’s primary goal for the season is to win the championship, the Waves need to overcome tough competitors under any circumstances.
“We have to start beating top-10 teams,” Steinberg said.
Last week’s hero senior Ivor Lovrak also said the team defeated UCLA without playing its best.
“We fought really hard but we could have played 20 percent better,” Steinberg said.
In 2005, Lovrak transferred to Pepperdine from Baylor, which won the NCAA tournament in 2004. Playing a couple of years at one of the best teams in the nation, Lovrak sounded like he knows how to play his best under pressure.
“More than 250 people were there watching but I was totally focused on my game,” Lovrak said.
After losing the first set, Lovrak brought back his game and won two straight sets to capture a victory, which also determined the team’s win.
The Waves traveled to Seattle, Wash., yesterday and competed in the ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championships, which starts tomorrow and concludes Monday. Pepperdine is playing in this invitational tournament for the first time in more than three years. That means no player on the team has played for this tournament with the exception of Lovrak, who has played twice when he was playing for Baylor.
“I’m feeling it,” said Lovrak.
Playing against top 16 teams in the country, perhaps this is the most challenging week for the Waves in their regular season.
If Pepperdine wins at the ITA Indoors, remaining undefeated for the season will be more realistic than ever before.
02-16-2006
