JANE LEE
Assistant Sports Editor
After going 2-2 on the road, the No.-14 Pepperdine women’s tennis team returned home to easily defeat Penn and then captured a thrilling victory over No.-15 Baylor at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
With the wins, the Waves improved their record to 11-2.
In their last four road matches of the regular season, Pepperdine posted wins over San Diego and South Florida, but fell to No.-2 USC and No.-10 Miami.
Backed by strong performances in both singles and doubles play, the Waves easily defeated Penn, 5-1, Friday afternoon.
In singles matches, which were played first because of the rain, Pepperdine took five of the six matches against the Quakers. No.-34 sophomore Bianca Dulgheru defeated Yulia Rivelis 6-1, 6-2 while No.-93 sophomore Sylvia Kosakowski beat Alexis Plukas 6-3, 6-1.
Also grabbing wins were senior Natalie Braverman, junior Eva Dickes and senior Merve Asimigil. Braverman handed Caroline Stanislawski a 6-3, 6-3 defeat while Dickes picked up her 10th win of the season by beating Sara Schiffman 6-1, 6-1. At court six was Asimigil, who grabbed a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ashley Lostritto.
The only singles point gained by Penn came at the No.-3 spot from Raluca Ciochina, who defeated junior Caroline Raba 6-3, 6-1.
“We won that match pretty easily,” Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said. “It was rainy so we only had to play singles matches, and the girls just came out and dominated.”
Four days later, despite having all but two players sick, Pepperdine swept the doubles and came up big in the late singles matches to help claim a dramatic 4-3 victory over Baylor.
While the Wave duo of Asimigil and Kosakowski upset No.-24 Zuzana Cerna and Klara Zrustova 8-5, Dickes and Dulgheru defeated the Bear duo of Zuzana Zemenova and Iva Mihaylova 8-5, and Braverman and Raba came from behind to defeat Daniela Covello and Zuzana Krchnakvoa in the tiebreaker.
“Our doubles teams are strong enough to win any match,” Escudero said. “They always set the tone for the rest of the match.”
After the Bears evened the score after recording a win at the No.-2 singles spot, Braverman gave the Waves a point when she defeated Zrustova 6-3, 6-2. Baylor, however, took the lead after registering victories in the third and sixth positions.
“This game was almost as exciting as the UCLA match,” Escudero said. “Both came down to the last couple matches.”
Dickes was vital for the Waves, as she came back to win in the third set over Krchnakova, which then turned all eyes over to court one, where Dulgheru eventually upset No-12 Zemenova 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to clinch the match for Pepperdine.
“We would’ve lost if we had lost either of those last two matches,” Escudero said. “It was a very exciting finish, and I give credit to our players because they just kept moving and playing great.”
The Waves are next in action when they host New Mexico at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. Two days later they will play a rescheduled match against Sacramento State at 1 p.m.
“I’m respectful of all the teams,” Escudero said. “Many teams in the nation have been beating higher-ranked teams. We now know that a No.-50 team can beat a No.-10 team.
“Hopefully we can get everybody healthy and keep playing great tennis.”
03-16-2006
