DAVID TESIC/Assistant Photo Editor
GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The No.-19 Pepperdine women’s tennis team captured its second dual meet victory of the season Monday afternoon with a 4-3 win over visiting No.-33 Louisiana State.
The Waves (2-2) got off to a good start by winning the doubles point. The teams then split the six singles matches, winning three apiece to give Pepperdine the win.
“I’m happy we beat a 33rd ranked team because it was our first test to see if we could beat the teams we’re supposed to beat,” Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said. “We did that last year and we kept our top 20 ranking.”
The team of sophomores Jill Braverman and Tania Rice came up with the first win of the day for Pepperdine in the No.-3 doubles match against sophomores Hannah Robinson and Nicole Kantor, 8-4. LSU fought back to tie things up with a victory of its own in the No.-2 match with juniors Mykala Hedberg and Staten Spencer defeating freshman Anu Bhargava and sophomore Anete Bandere, 8-2.
However, Pepperdine seniors Bianca Dulgheru and Sylvia Kosakowski clinched the doubles point with a win over junior Megan Falcon and senior Tiffany Tucker, 8-4.
LSU got a quick victory in the No.-1 singles match when Falcon defeated Dulgheru (6-1, 6-3). Bhargava got the Waves on the board in singles with a comeback win against Tucker in the No.-3 singles slot (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).
“After losing my first doubles match of the season I wasn’t energetic and wasn’t positive,” Bhargava said. “I just started moving my feet and being positive after every good shot I hit.”
In other singles action, Kantor downed junior Alex Liles (6-4, 7-5) and Robinson edged Bandere in the longest match of the afternoon (6-4, 4-6, 12-10). Braverman won her first singles match of the season in the No.-6 match against Spencer (6-2, 7-5).
“I played really well,” Braverman said after the match. “I love competing and today I really just felt it running through my veins.”
Kosakowski clinched a Waves victory with a three-set victory over Hedberg in the No.-2 singles (6-3, 4-6, 6-1).
Pepperdine continues its four-game homestand Sunday against Sacramento State at 1:30 p.m.
02-07-2008
