GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The No.-18 Pepperdine women’s tennis team lost for the first time in eight matches Wednesday afternoon, falling to No.-5 Stanford, 5-2. With the loss, the Waves fell to 13-4 on the season, while the Cardinal improve to 12-3.
Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said he was happy the team stayed perfect on the season in winning the doubles point.
“I’d be more disappointed if we lost the doubles point, but that’s one thing we kept alive,” he said. “Always if our team is going to beat some top teams, we have to win the doubles point.”
The tandem of seniors Sylvia Kosakowski and Bianca Dulgheru struggled throughout their match and lost for the first time this spring (1-8). However, the other two matches were won by the Waves to clinch the doubles point. The No.-2 duo of sophomore Jill Braverman and freshman Anu Bhargava put the Waves on the board (8-5). Finally, the No.-3 doubles match went to a tiebreaker and sophomores Tania Rice and Anete Bandere prevailed to clinch the point, 9-8 (7-4).
In singles, the Waves were only able to muster one in the singles against the Cardinal, who have five of their six players ranked in the top 100. In the No.-5 singles slot, Braverman outlasted Whitney Deason in the longest match of the afternoon that went back and forth the entire third set (2-6, 6-4, 7-6).
In the No.-1 match, Kosakowski played well against Hilary Barte, who is ranked eighth in the country, but wasn’t able to gain any traction to pull off the upset (4-6, 4-6).
In the No.-2 slot, Bhargava won the first set but wasn’t able to win either of the next two against Jessica Nguyen (6-3, 3-6, 2-6). Bhargava said she wasn’t able to keep the momentum when she grabbed it and wasn’t as aggressive throughout the match as she wanted to be.
“The first set I played unreal and then came out and served a 40-0 game, and I thought for sure I had all the momentum,” she said. “I played fine when I was aggressive, but if I had just kept being aggressive and taking my opportunities then I would have been fine.”
Rounding out singles play, Celia Durkin defeated Dulgheru in straight sets (2-6, 4-6). Bandere fought back to force a tiebreaker in the second set againt Lindsay Burdette, but wasn’t able to force a third set (2-6, 6-7). Finally, in the No.-6 slot, junior Alex Liles rallied after a first-set loss to take a lead in the second set, but couldn’t force a third (1-6, 4-6).
Pepperdine hosts its final home match of the season today at 1:30 p.m. against Harvard University.
03-27-2008
