It has been three years since the men’s tennis team last qualified for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, but that was exactly what they accomplished following their win against Vanderbilt on Saturday, Jan. 28. For junior Sebastian Fanselow it was the first time since coming to Pepperdine. With a whole new challenge ahead of him, he reflects on his road to the championship and his expectations for the season.
Fanselow started off playing tennis in a small club in his hometown of Essen in Germany.
“I started playing when I was 9 years old. I got interested because my brother began playing a year ahead of me” he said. “I also played soccer, but I wasn’t as good at it” he said, laughing. He visited seven different schools when looking for colleges, but ended up choosing Pepperdine because “it is a beautiful campus” and because he liked the guys in his recruiting trip.
“I also got along great with the coach from the very beginning, so I knew I wanted to come here,” he said.
In his Pepperdine career, Fanselow has garnered several victories and titles, including All-WCC first team in singles and ITA All-American in singles for the 2010-2011 seasons. However, he is quick to credit coach Adam Steinberg’s program. He said his favorite things about college tennis are the energy and the passion with which they play.
“They make it a team sport here. You share all the great moments with your teammates, which makes it a lot more special than by yourself.”
The match against Vanderbilt was a major victory for the Waves, beating out the competition in both singles and doubles. Fanselow played alongside his long-time doubles partner Jenson Turner to defeat Alex DiValerio and Joe Dorn.
“It is the start of the season and we are still trying to find our rhythm. But, I have always played doubles with Jenson. So, right now we are sticking with this line up, as long as it works,” he said.
The win, in turn, allowed them to qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
“We have never made it to indoors or the NCAA sweet 16 since I have been here, so it is a great thing we started the season the way we did. We are going to face a lot of tough teams we haven’t faced before, and that will help us for the rest of the season.”
Tough teams, indeed. This past weekend the Waves took on Ohio State (No.3) and University of Kentucky (No.6). Fanselow predicted the challenge these schools would pose.
“They are going to be the toughest opponents we’ve faced so far, especially on the road. It is never easy because they have their crowd cheering them on and the conditions are different indoors.”
Despite winning in doubles against Kentucky, the Waves were defeated in singles and ultimately lost the match.
The men’s tennis team has faced bigger challenges before. As many may remember, it has been a particularly long and difficult road for them. They were pulled out of the NCAA Championship last year due to a fault with administration. “The end of the last season was very hard for us because we couldn’t finish. But after a couple of months we all got together and started training again.” Fanselow said. On how this misfortune impacted their game, he added “It definitely motivated us to be better. Whenever we had a bad practice we thought about it and improved. I think it made us tougher and more experienced for this year.”
The Waves will next face defending NCAA champions USC this Friday. The game promises to be a grueling one, but Fanselow is confident in his team.
“We have a lot of juniors and seniors. We have all known each other for at least two years now. We all have gone through a lot together and we know what it takes to get what we want.”
According to him, what they want is the Championship title, and they will certainly work hard for it.
