JANE LEE
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine women’s tennis team competed in both the pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds of the Riviera/Intercollegiate All-American Championships from Friday through Tuesday.
In the pre-qualifying rounds Saturday at UCLA, senior Natalie Braverman and sophomore Sylvia Kosakowski were the only Waves to make it to the second round of singles play.
In the first round, Braverman defeated Rice University’s Kimberly Patenaude, while Kosakowski defeated Kara Delicata of Michigan 6-4, 6-3. Junior Eva Dickes lost to Georgia Tech’s Lindsay Shosho 6-0, 6-1, and sophomore Jelena Jovic was defeated by Baylor’s Daniella Covello 6-3, 6-4.
Braverman and Kosakowski were both eliminated in the second round. Braverman was defeated 6-3, 6-1 by Notre Dame’s Christian Thompson and Kosakowski lost to Nebraska’s Imke Reimers 2-6, 6-1, 7-6.
“I thought Natalie played very well for her first tournament match since her knee surgery in May,” Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said.
The Pepperdine doubles team of senior Merve Asimgil and Jovic eliminated Kelly Baritot and Courtney Zauft of University of Texas 8-2 to advance to Sunday’s play.
However, Asimgil and Jovic were defeated by Washington’s Dinka Hadzic and Tara Simpson 8-6 in the second round of doubles play.
Four players represented the Waves in the qualifying rounds Monday and Tuesday in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Junior Caroline Raba competed in the qualifying singles and qualifying doubles with Kosakowski, along with Dickes and sophomore Bianca Dulgheru.
In the first round of qualifying singles matches, Raba, who was seeded ninth in the round, was defeated by Purdue’s Randi Schuler 6-4, 6-1.
Raba withdrew from the tournament with an injury and did not play in the doubles match with Kosakowski.
“I thought Raba would win some matches and get into the main draw, but it was not to be,” Escudero said. “She’ll be ready next time, but we don’t know when that will be as she hurt her wrist.”
In doubles play, Dickes and Dulgheru defeated Anna Lubinsky and Sarah Foster of Texas A&M 8-5, but were eliminated in the second round 8-3 by Harvard’s Elsa O-Riain and Melissa Anderson.
The main draw began Wednesday and will continue until tomorrow. Dulgheru will represent Pepperdine in singles play.
10-06-2005
