On Tuesday Pepperdine’s women’s tennis team was swept at home by No. 10-ranked California 7-0. The Waves now ranked 51 had only one victory during the match that came in the No. 3 doubles game won by sophomore Andrea Oates and senior Tania Rice.
The doubles victory won by Oates and Rice was a close game as the Pepperdine pair won by a tiebreaker 8-7. The Waves’ other two doubles teams No. 1 Anamika Bhargava and Marie Zalameda and No. 2 Arianna Colffer and Ali Walters both lost to California’s doubles teams 8-5.
California won two out of the three doubles matches giving them a point for the first half meeting. The next challenge for the Waves came in the six singles matches.
Pepperdine lost six for six in the doubles matches making it the first time the Waves have been swept this season. Waves freshman Colffer took on the No. 2-ranked singles player Jana Juricova but fell 6-1 and 6-3 in straight sets.
Pepperdine sophomore Walters won her first set against California’s Kasia Siwosz 6-4 but Siwosz answered back with a victory in the second set at 6-2 and a win in a super-tiebreaker.
Walters was the only Wave to post a set victory against the Golden Bears.
Walters said the Waves exerted a lot of effort and they witnessed improvement from the work they put in this season.
“The energy was pretty good on our part and some of the close matches are definitely evident of our improvement through the season Walters said. We are hoping to build on this match and take the disappointment from today and hopefully let that fuel us.”
After a loss to No. 10-ranked California on Tuesday the Waves returned to the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center on Wednesday to take on No. 12-ranked Stanford but lost to the visiting Cardinal 6-1.
The Waves had trouble against Stanford in doubles losing all three matches. Walters and Colffer gave Pepperdine its best shot at a win fighting to a tiebreaker with Stanford’s Mallory Burdette and Stacey Tan but the Waves duo fell at 7-6.
Pepperdine junior Bhargava defended her team from a second 7-0 loss in the same week with a victory against No. 40-ranked Lindsay Burdette 6-2 and 7-5. Bhargava is now 3-6 against nationally ranked opponents and this victory marks her highest win against a ranked player this season.
“Today’s win was what I have been working for all year Bhargava said. I have put a lot of time and fighting and it finally paid off today.”
Bhargava also said she had been struggling in previous matches because she lacked confidence but yesterday she fought through it.
“I have had some tough past four matches and I just lacked confidence to get out there and take it Bhargava said. But I overcame that today and I feel so deserved.”
Walters said it was good experience for the Waves to play top-ranked competition this week.
“We’ve had a great opportunity this week to play two very established teams Walters said. It’s always great to get games sets and matches off these top teams to see that we can play with anybody. We also see how these teams are successful and try to learn from them as well.”
The Waves now 6-11 have five matches left in regular season play and the remaining games will be held in the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
Pepperdine will take on Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this Wednesday at 1:30 p.m in the eighth match of the 12-game homestand in Malibu.