NICOLE ALBERTSON
Staff Writer
The women’s tennis team is climbing the rankings as they finished this week adding two wins to their record improving to 14-7 on the season. Tuesday’s victory over Saint Mary’s Gaels 6-1 and Friday’s victory over Long Beach State 5-2 brings the Waves up to an 8-1 record over the past nine matches held at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
Picking up the doubles point in both match ups, Head Coach Gualberto Escudero tributes the success to the strong doubles team match ups, including No. 1 doubles team Sylvia Kosakowski and Katia Sabate winning 8-4.
“Our doubles teams are just getting better and better,” Escudero said. “Sylvia is becoming the one to play with and is enjoying the challenge of playing with new partners. The whole team feels like they can win.”
Joining in the doubles team combination scramble, sophomore Alicia Poladian competed in her first match paired with freshman Tania Rice to complete the doubles lineup replacing injured freshman Jillian Braverman. The doubles teams will continue their game of mix-and-match when injured players senior Caroline Raba and junior Bianca Dulgheru make hopeful returns to the court for the upcoming matches in Texas.
“We always want the strongest lineup we can,” Escudero said. “We will be so happy when Bianca comes back. And playing without Caroline would be a terrible loss.”
But the women have worked through wins and losses this season, starting out with the toughest teams first. The recent six game winning streak was preceded by defeats from Stanford 6-1, Berkeley 6-1 and Fresno State 5-2.
“We started off playing very good teams when we weren’t ready to play them,” Dulgheru said. “But as the season went on we started playing better. Starting with the good teams at the beginning and now ending with UCLA is the ultimate challenge, to see what we have achieved.”
Getting ready to finish the year with four more regular season games then moving on to conference, the Waves are powering their shots and building their confidence in order to serve up success.
“The girls are getting better as the season ends,” Dulgheru said. “The double are better with every match and they are more comfortable playing with each other. They are tougher. We are right where we want to be.”
Leaving the comforts of Malibu behind, the women’s team will be jet setting to Texas to compete against Baylor, Texas and Rice, and then returning to play rival UCLA next Wednesday. The last four regular season games will determine standings for the NCAA Championship.
“Our goal is to win two matches at regionals and then fly the whole team to nationals,” Escudero said. “Even better would be if we ranked top 16 and we could host the tournament like last year.”
NCAA hosting options will be based on national ranking — must be Top16 — or winning the regional conference.
But at the end of the season, the Waves will be losing two of its top players, seniors Eva Dickes and Caroline Raba, and welcoming two new recruits in fall 2007.
“We have good freshman and we are very motivated to play, but it is going to be a very young team,” Dulgheru said. “It is going to be hard to adjust. I’m really curious actually how it is going to be.”
Joining the team as a recruit from Tennessee, Anamika Bharva already plays high-level tennis, holding her own against the world ranked 200th player. While she is a young talent, she will be able to compete at the top three spots on the Pepperdine team, Escudero said.
Another recruit from San Diego, Kimberly Haynes, will be taking the summer to build strength and adjust to the offensive college style, which many new players struggle to adapt to, Escudero said.
With another season coming to an end, Escudero is joined by Assistant Coach Cintia Tortorella and Volunteer Coach Alan Hopkins to keep the encouragement and confidence in the players. Tortorella is using her extensive experience as a tennis player and Hopkins is drawing from years as an assistant coach to bring the best in the Waves’ women.
“Everyone is working so hard to help me and to help the players,” Escudero said. “But I think the highlights of the season are yet to come.”
Pepperdine Waves set out to Texas today fighting to win the next four games as they head into conference in May.
04-05-2007
