SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Assistant
Adding two wins over the weekend, the No.-2 Pepperdine men’s tennis team remained unbeaten for the past 13 matches.
The Waves traveled down to San Diego on Saturday and handed No.-56 San Diego State a 5-2 defeat to post their 12th consecutive win. The Waves improved to 25-1 on the season, while the Aztecs dropped to 10-6.
The game began with the No.-21 Aztec pair of Benedict Stronk and Markus Dickhardt upsetting the No.-1 duo in the country of senior Scott Doerner and sophomore Andre Begemann 8-3. However, the other two Pepperdine pairs answered back and clinched the doubles point at the courts two and three. The No.-52 duo seniors Ivor Lovrak and Pedro Rico defeated Stephan Timu and Anthony Gomez 8-6, while junior Richard Johnson and freshman Omar Altmann overpowered Eugenio Romero and Christian Groh 8-3.
In singles, Doerner and Begemann rebounded from the doubles loss as they logged wins at court one and four when they beat Stronk 6-1, 6-1 and Timu 6-2, 6-4, respectively. Lovrak remained undefeated in singles as he overcame Dickhardt 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Altmann added another point to his team when he beat Robert Sabo in the super tiebreaker.
“Everyone played well with a good attitude,” sophomore Oliver Hyams said.
Although Hyams did not play last weekend, he enjoyed watching his teammates play well, he said.
Traveling back to Malibu, Pepperdine finished the perfect weekend with a dominating 7-0 sweep over No.-44 Fresno State on Sunday afternoon on Senior Day.
The Waves completed this regular season’s home matches with a perfect record of 18-0 in Malibu, while they moved to 26-1 on the season.
As usual, the Waves captured a doubles point when they swept all three matches. The Lovrak-Rico pair defeated Ruby Siwy and Charlie Irie 8-4 at court two, while Doerner- Begemann and Johnson-Altmann duos defeated their opponents 8-3 and 9-8, respectively.
The Waves maintained the momentum in singles and won all six matches. At courts five, four and two, Johnson, Begemann and Rico respectively overwhelmed Tadevosian, Irie and Modoc to determine the overall win.
At courts one and six, Doerner and Altmann struggled in their first sets, but they came back strongly and managed to win close matches.
Pepperdine ends the 2006 regular season when it travels to the Lone Star State to face No.-3 Texas Friday and No.-19 Texas A&M Saturday.
Hyams said the match against Texas this Friday will be one of the biggest games in the season.
“This will be the biggest trip of the season,” he said. “There is going to be a lot of spectators especially Texas has a lot of people.”
Rico echoed Hyams’ comment.
“U of T is good, and they are playing good, too,” Rico said. “It (this weekend) is going to be huge.”
After this trip, the WCC and NCAA are waiting the Waves.
“It’s really important to finish off the regular season really strong,” Hyams said, “so we can perform and look forward to the conference and the NCAA.”
04-13-2006