After a layover in Houston, Texas, a rerouted flight into Tulsa and a three-hour bus ride to Fayetteville, Ark., the Pepperdine women’s tennis team finally made it to the ITA Indoor Team Championship tournament Saturday.
Trips make the team closer said Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said. We took it stride for stride and really it was no problem with the delays.”
The weekend schedule included a match against No.-17 Notre Dame one of the nation’s premiere indoor teams. With their indoor experience Notre Dame unfortunately swept Pepperdine 5-0.
After the Waves’ loss against the Irish they headed into the consolation round to face Oregon. They wasted no time dismantling the Ducks. Pepperdine won 4-0 without losing any of the three doubles matches.
In singles junior Jill Braverman defeated Madelie Jans Van Reinsburg 3-Jun 7-5 freshman Alex Liles defeated Stephanie MacFarlane 6-1 6-1 and freshman Andrea Oates defeated Trudie du Toit 6-2 6-4.
After a 1-1 weekend Pepperdine came back to Malibu to host to No. 3-ranked UCLA on Wednesday and gave Waves fans a suspenseful match.
In the doubles matches freshman Alexandria Walters was paired up with Braverman in an epic battle against Carling Seguso and Ashley Joelson of UCLA.
“Jill [Braverman] and I played well together today Walters said. We were fired up.”
Walters and Braverman quickly gained control and ended the match 8-3. However the Waves were unable to secure their second doubles victory but came out ready to compete in the singles matches.
“We competed very well against last year’s national championship team and I really think we will be great by the end of the year Bhargava said.
Freshman Andrea Oates has been a solid contributor to the team’s lineup and Wednesday’s match was no different. She defeated Anna-Viktoria Lind, 6-3, 6-4. After Oates’ solid performance, Braverman came out with another competitive match of her own. She defeated Ashley Joelson, 6-4, 6-3.
I was 100 percent focused today Braverman said. Without the focus I think I would have lost.”
Braverman’s focus helped her be the only player on the Waves’ roster to get a victory in both the doubles and singles matches and UCLA finished the day winning 5-2.
The 2-3 Waves will now hit the road and play USC tomorrow and San Diego State on Tuesday.