SHUHEI MATSUO
Assistant Sports Editor
Before the spring season begins in January, the Pepperdine women’s tennis team kicked off its fall action Friday when players traveled different places for non-team tournaments.
Junior Vanessa Dunlap and sophomore Alicia Poladian represented the Waves at the San Diego State Fall Tennis Classic in San Diego on Friday. Although the Pepperdine duo managed to win the first round of singles against San Diego’s Justine Perl and Zoe Taylor with a score of 9-7, the Waves fell to Marobela/Hagiwara 8-0 in Saturday’s second round.
In singles, both Dunlap and Poladian lost to their opponents during the first round. They also lost in the consolation draws and were eliminated from the tournament.
While two Waves competed in San Diego over the weekend, senior Caroline Raba and juniors Sylvia Kosakowski and Bianca Dulgheru also represented Pepperdine when they played in the singles at the 2006 Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades. However, Raba fell to Kellie Schimitt of Marshall 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the pre-qualifying tournament.
Pepperdine’s No.-2 player Kosakowski competed in the 64-player qualifying singles with a ranking of No. 46, but lost to No.-36 Anna Lubinksy of Texas A&M, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round.
Along with Kosakowski, Waves’ best player, Dulgheru, is ranked No. 18 in singles, while the two pair up for a No.-28 doubles ranking in the ITA Preseason Rankings.
Despite the unsatisfying results from the first week of the fall season, Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said this year’s team is looking strong with four solid returning players and three new freshmen: Tania Rice, Jillian Braverman and Anete Bandere.
However, having strong individual players doesn’t guarantee a bright future because tennis is such a growing sport, Escudero added.
“Tennis is big now,” he said. “Every school has really good players.”
Escudero also said his players just play tournaments to see how well the individuals or doubles teams do, while team matches start in January.
The Waves are next in action this weekend at the Rice Invitational in Houston and the Cal State Fullerton Fall Intercollegiate in Fullerton, Calif.
10-05-2006
