GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
In front of a large home crowd, the No.-15 Pepperdine men’s tennis team upset No.-12 University of Illinois on Wednesday afternoon, 4-3. With the win, the Waves won their fourth match in a row and improved to 7-6 in dual match play.
Head Coach Adam Steinberg said his team played well and is turning its season around after a disappointing start.
“Being home helps and we’re really tough here,” Steinberg said. “I’m really proud of the guys, we came back and made a great season out of this because we had a very bad start.”
The Waves started quickly by winning the crucial doubles point. The No.-3 tandem of sophomores Mahmoud Kimmel and James Lemke were the first to finish after closing out their match against freshman Connor Roth and junior Marc Spicijaric (8-5). The No.-2 team of freshman Johannes de Villiers and sophomore Bassam Beidas lost its first match together to seniors Ryan Rowe and sophomore Billy Heiser (8-5).
“They played well and we had a few chances that we didn’t take,” Beidas said. “We don’t have any experience together, but we were just trying to help the other guys out and make sure they won it as well.”
It all came down to the No.-1 pair of seniors Andre Begemann and Omar Altmann against fellow seniors Ruben Gonzalez and Brandon Davis. Begeman and Altmann were leading 6-5 while Altmann served and quickly fell behind 0-40. With the crowd urging the team on, they fought off three break points and eventually won the crucial game to take a 7-5 lead. Begemann closed the match on his serve to clinch the doubles point (8-6).
“We stuck with the basics and I told [Omar] to serve to their backhands, which we did all set,” Begemann said. “We just kept the intensity high and tried to stay in the moment.”
In singles, Begemann and Rowe continually held their serve in both sets but Begemann broke him at 6-5 in both sets to take the match (7-5, 7-5).
“I think I was just a little bit more focused and aggressive, and I think that’s why I won,” Begemann said after the match.
Beidas overcame a quick break in the first set to defeat Ruben Gonzalez after losing to him in his first match as a freshman last season (6-4, 6-3). Kamel clinched the match for the Waves after rallying from losing the first set and winning the decisive third set (4-6, 6-2, 6-2).
In other singles action, Altmann lost his first set but stormed back to win the second set, 6-0. However, he faltered after leading the third set, 5-2, to drop the final set, 7-6.
Lemke stormed out of the gates to win his first set but couldn’t close out Spicijaric in the second set, and Spicijaric won the tiebreaker (6-3, 4-6, 6-10).
Finally, freshman Alejandro Moreno dominated the first set, but couldn’t close out fellow freshman Abe Souza (6-1, 1-6, 4-6).
The Waves are back on the court against Princeton University on Friday at 11 a.m.
03-20-2008