JANE LEE
Assistant Sports Editor
The No.-8 Pepperdine women’s tennis team continued to cruise through its matches last weekend, easily capturing victories over No.-19 Harvard and Saint Mary’s at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
Backed by a sweep of the doubles matches, the Waves (16-3) handed Harvard a 5-2 defeat Saturday to give the Crimson (10-6) their sixth loss of the season.
Pepperdine kicked off the match with an upset on court one with the No.-22 Wave duo of senior Merve Asimigil and sophomore Sylvia Kosakowski defeating the No.-4 team of Melissa Anderson and Elsa O’Riain 8-6.
After senior Natalie Braverman and junior Caroline Raba clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 win at the No.-3 spot over Harvard’s Preethi Mukundan and Laura Peterzan, the No.-25 duo of sophomore Bianca Dulgheru and junior Eva Dickes defeated Eva Wang and Stephanie Schnitter 9-7 on court two to complete doubles play.
Dickes then kicked off singles play with a dominating 6-0, 6-0 win over Mukundan at the No.-5 spot, while Raba defeated Peterzan 6-0, 6-4 at No. 3.
The Crimson hung in the match with two singles victories on courts four and six, but the Waves took a 3-2 lead as No.-27 Dulgheru handed Wang a 6-4, 6-3 loss on court one.
Kosakowski clinched the match for the Waves with a 7-6, 6-3 win over O’Riain.
“It was really exciting to have competitive players on the other team,” Dulgheru said. “The better the team, the better we get. We’re excited to play good teams, we’re not afraid to play them.”
Pepperdine picked up its second win of the weekend when the Waves rolled over Saint Mary’s 7-0 in a West Coast Conference match Sunday.
The Waves’ doubles teams proved unstoppable once again by sweeping all three matches against the Gaels (9-5).
Asimigil and Kosakowski fought together to defeat the duo of Aude Lambert and Jessica Hoath 8-4. While Dickes and Dulgheru shut out Stef Ordoveza and Erin Young 8-0 on court two, Braverman and Raba also easily put away their opponents, grabbing an 8-1 victory over Kate Harden and Feline Charlot.
The Waves’ momentum carried into singles play, as they knocked out the Gaels in straight sets.
At the No.-1 spot, Dulgheru defeated Lambert 6-0, 6-1, while Kosakowski defeated Hoath 6-1, 6-0 on court two. Raba picked up her second win of the weekend with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Harden at No. 4, and junior Lise Sissler recorded her first win playing at No. 5 with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Kristin Kummer. Sophomore Jelena Jovic is also 2-0 now after beating Ordoveza 6-1, 6-1.
While Pepperdine continues to rack in the wins, the Waves also learned Wednesday that Dulgheru was one of three Waves to earn WCC Player of the Month honors for their respective sports.
“I work really hard,” Dulgheru said. “I’m really happy it paid off for me. I’m excited to be among the top players in the nation and I just hope to do well in nationals and finish strong.”
Dulgheru, last year’s WCC Freshman of the Year, compiled an 8-1 mark during March, tallying wins in her last six matches at the No.-1 singles position. She went 5-1 against ranked opponents and is currently the highest ranked WCC singles competitor at No. 25 in the ITA rankings.
“Honestly, I’ve approved since I came here because the level of play is really high,” Dulgheru said. “We’re among the top 10 in the nation right now so we reached our goal.”
Dulgheru and the Waves will look to keep on dominating the courts when they conclude regular season play on Friday. Pepperdine will face Florida International at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center with the first serve set for 1:30 p.m.
04-06-2006
