The Waves Women’s tennis team continues to show progress after the weekends Jack Kramer Invitational in Rolling Hills Estates, California. The tournament was filled with some of the nation’s top talent teams including USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Baylor, Mississippi State and Miami. Despite the strong competition the Pepperdine women’s tennis team showed their strength as a team.
Starting with red shirted senior Khunpak Issara willing her way to the round of 16 with victories over Mississippi State’s Olesya Tsigvintseva in the first round followed by a fairly handily victory over USC’s Valeria Pulido in the second round all before a tough lost to number 25 ranked Anna Bartenstein of Miami University. Issara’s counterpart Arianna Colffer also reached the round of 16. Experiencing the pleasures of a first round bye Colffer then in the second round outlasted Miami’s Melissa Bolivar after winning the tie break in the first set 7-6 (7-1) then winning handily in the second set 6-2 to win the match. She ultimately lost in the quarter finals to the number 97 ranked Jordaan Sanford from Baylor.
Pepperdine also contributed two teams for the double matches in the tournament. The teams consisted of Megan Moore and Khunpak Issara who faced Loyola Marymount’s Elisaveta Pronkova and Reka Rohonyi in the 1st round as well as Lorraine Guillermo and Ale Granillo who faced Melissa Bolivar and Brittany Dubins of Miami in the Quarterfinal after a bye. Moore/Khunpak decisively defeated Pronkova/Rohonyi in their 1st round match of 8-2. However in the next round they lost to top seeded UCLA in an 8-3 match. The other Pepperdine doubles teammates (Guillermo/Granillo) also won their first match against Miami’s Bolivar/Dubins with a decisive 8-3 victory. This effort followed with a tough close 8-6 lost to UCLA’s Carling Seguso and Kaitlin Ray in the semi-final round.
Overall after a quality performance in the Jack Kramer Invitational this past weekend and a strong performance at the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championship the week before Pepperdine looks to be in shape to make some noise this upcoming 2012 season. Although some kinks need to be worked out as Head Coach Gualberto Escudero admitted when stating that the team needs to focus on “staying healthy and developing a strong doubles team.” The team will have an opportunity to work on just that one more time in the final fall tournament in the Mission Hills Desert Classic which starts on November 4 and concludes on the 6th in Rancho Mirage, California. And with a new member of the team being cleared by the NCAA hopefully in time for the start of the season opener against San Diego State on January 25, 2012 and more members of the team becoming healthy there is much optimism arising in Malibu for the Lady Waves season .
