The Pepperdine men’s tennis team will play all the way across the country this weekend and hope to improve upon what has become their biggest hurdle of the season— doubles play. The No. 16-ranked Waves will play at No. 28 Alabama on Friday afternoon and No. 19 Florida State on Saturday looking to add two wins to their 4-3 record.
The Alabama Crimson Tide showed strength in doubles in their most recent match against Oklahoma last Friday Feb. 19 as they won both No. 1 and No. 2 doubles securing the point. Their defeat in singles though resulted in a Crimson Tide loss.
Pepperdine Head Coach Adam Steinberg made his mark at Alabama from 1998 to 2002 as the head coach. The Crimson Tide has a young team this year with seven of the 10 players underclassmen.
Alabama’s strength in doubles will be an interesting matchup for the Waves whose weakness in that aspect of the game has been evident throughout the season and was especially clear in the last two matches at home against USC last Friday Feb. 19 and Fresno State on Tuesday.
“The recent matches showed us that we have to continue working hard on our weaknesses and especially get better in doubles freshman Sebastian Fanselow said. It’s usually the small parts that make a difference against the good teams.”
Against the No. 5-ranked Trojans Fanselow stood out as the only Wave to earn a singles point as he beat a nationally ranked opponent at No. 4 singles. The Waves also lost the doubles point in the rival home match and took a heavy 6-1 defeat from USC.
“I feel happy about having won the match and I think it’s the best match I have played so far Fanselow said. But on the other hand it’s not such a great feeling if you see that the whole team lost. I think that most of our guys didn’t play as well as they wanted to.”
The Waves came back strong in singles Tuesday against Fresno State with a 5-2 win. The team took five of the six singles matches and the first four were won without difficulty in straight sets.
“We wanted to beat Fresno and beat them comprehensively senior Bassam Beidas said. They are a good team this year and for the first time in a long time they believed they had the chance to beat us so we definitely wanted to perform on Tuesday.”
Beidas and sophomore Alex Llompart played No. 2 doubles and won 8-5 before going on to defeat in No. 1 and No. 2 singles. Llompart played No. 1 for the first time this season and earned a 6-4 7-6 victory over former teammate Rikus De Villiers (who transferred from Pepperdine to Fresno State). At No. 2 Beidas had an easy 6-2 6-2 over Mirko Zapletal.
While Fanselow fell at No. 3 singles Pepperdine took the last three. Freshman Mousheg Hovhannisyan beat nationally ranked No. 112 Tejesvi Veerpalli in two straight sets and Daniel Moss played with the same ease in his victory in No. 6 singles. The day ended with a three-set brawl in No. 5 but freshman Finn Tearney came out on top.
But despite the obvious strength the Waves had over the Bulldogs the opponent still managed to clinch the doubles point. While the Waves managed to fight back in singles against Fresno State the loss of the doubles point can be difficult as it forces the team to win four singles matches to take the tournament. Coach Steinberg said that the team must improve in doubles “bottom line.”
Following the upcoming two away games the Waves will play their familiar territory for more than two full weeks with the next four matches at home. Looking forward the team is expected to be the top-ranked team in the West Coast Conference with hopes to make a solid appearance at the NCAA National Championships beginning in mid-May.
