NICOLE ALBERTSON
Staff Writer
The Pepperdine women’s tennis team sent 250 Loyola Marymount fans home angry Saturday when it defeated the Lions 6-1 in Los Angeles. Despite losing two of the top players because of injury, junior Sylvia Kosakowiski with a high hamstring pull and senior Eva Dickes with a bad back, Pepperdine came back from the struggling defeat to Irvine last week.
“It was a good win for us,” said No.-1 player junior Bianca Dulgheru for Pepperdine. “It gave us confidence.”
Doubles teams No.-3 Jillian Braverman and Caroline Raba and No.-2 Tania Rice and Anete Bandere pulled in the doubles point win for Pepperdine giving them the lead and encouragement going into the proceeding singles matches. Winning five of the six singles points, No.-19 Pepperdine powered through cross-town rival No.-70 Loyola and left no question to their strength.
Visiting the rival school’s tennis center was a shock and excitement for the players when they were greeted by screaming fans sporting shirts stamped with “Beat Pepperdine” on the back.
“Ever since Loyola got a taste of victory against us, they support and push their team a little bit more,” said Head Coach Escudero. “Especially when they play Pepperdine.”
While Escudero said it was harder to focus with a large number of fans hoping for a fault on every move, Dulgheru concentrated on her moves as she played in the first court next to the rambunctious crowd. Aside from occasional harsh remarks, the crowd’s enthusiasm and excitement egged on the players to fight harder on the court.
“It was really exciting,” said Dulgheru, “and really intense especially during double.”
The large fan turn-out of more than 250 Lions put Pepperdine fans to shame as a typical game turns out an estimated 20 supporters, and often most come from the traveling opponent team. Other than the few occasions that the men’s and women’s teams play double header with each other, tennis rarely draws large crowds. The Waves women are finding new ways to bring in the support and encouragement needed for successful and exciting matches.
New incentives are being added to the games hoping to draw in larger crowds. Along with promotional t-shirts and posters hung around campus, Coach Escudero is coaxing his P.E. students to attend by offering extra credit points as well as free clinics during the summer. The men’s tennis team has also taken up enlisting kids as ball boys to involve the families in the community.
This Friday, when the Waves host No.-5 Southern California, team members and coaches will be bringing pizza for the fans to enjoy while they watch the intense match. Freshman Braverman has also taken promotion into her own hands as she created a Facebook group dedicated to the women’s tennis team’s attack on USC, aptly named “Women’s Tennis Revenge against USC.”
Despite the women’s growing success this season, the Pepperdine fans are not following through with support, possibly due to the time of the matches, usually mid-day Friday and Saturday, or the uptight stigma of tennis. But players are looking for Pepperdine fans to overcome the “difficult” obstacles and support their team.
“It is such a common misconception that tennis is so proper and uptight,” Braverman said. “But we want people to come out and scream and yell. We want people to make noise and be rowdy.”
Contrasting last weeks defeat from the motivation deprived team, the Waves came out in full force striving to beat Loyola and prove themselves.
“The loss made us really motivated,” Dulgheru said. “We knew that this could not happen again. We knew they were our rival in conference and had a lot of desire to win. It was challenging but we were ready for it.”
The players are now building their confidence from their Loyola win and preparing for the USC match this weekend.
“We are so pumped up to beat them,” Braverman said. “It is going to be the revenge of the year.”
While USC is suffering from a fresh defeat by Stanford, Pepperdine wants to keep focused on their win and their strength on the court. Coach Escudero is enforcing the fight mentality and their strength when working together.
“We need to win as a team and not individual matches,” said Escudero.
Pepperdine will be fighting against USC this Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Pavilion. Students are being given the chance to witness the “revenge of the year” and munch on pizza at the same time. How much better could it get?
02-22-2007
