SHUHEI MATSUO
Assistant Sports Editor
The ninth-ranked Waves men’s tennis team dominated Saint Mary’s 6-1 and Santa Clara 7-0 during Saturday’s West Cost Conference doubleheader, giving Head Coach Adam Steinberg his 99th and 100th victories at Pepperdine.
Adding two wins, the Waves improved to a 4-1 overall record for the 2007 campaign.
“I thought that was a good weekend,” Steinberg said. “Playing a doubleheader is not easy, you know, two matches in one day against two really improved teams. The guys got tired at the end, but they fought through, and I was really happy about that.”
Saturday was a long day for the Waves – starting the first game at 8 a.m. and ending the second game at 4:30 p.m. Echoing his coach, sophomore player Omar Altmann also described Saturday as a big day.
“It’s not easy playing four matches in one day,” Altmann said. “I feel like the team was great; we all played really well and were on the same page throughout the day.”
After the first loss against Illinois during the season opener on Jan. 19, Pepperdine is 4-0 with three 7-0 perfect games. However, Altmann said he and his teammates do not even feel like they lost to Illinois.
“Illinois is a great team, and it was our first match of the season with three new guys, away, indoors,” he said. “I mean, with all these things standing against us, we managed to fight our way through. I mean, we lost 4-3, but everyone played just great, and we walked off the court feeling like we won it because we stayed together as a team and did everything that our coach told us to do.”
The Waves were scheduled to play against Fresno State on Wednesday, but the match was postponed due to rain in the northern California area. The two nationally ranked teams will reschedule the game for a later date.
Pepperdine will return to Malibu for a match against San Diego State on Saturday. The game begins at 1:30 p.m. at Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
02-08-2007