SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Assistant
Senior Ivor Lovrak saved the Waves again, just like he did during the UCLA match earlier in the season. The Pepperdine men’s tennis team defeated one of its biggest rivals, Baylor, which had not lost to the Waves in more than three years. The Monday’s 4-3 victory over No.-7 Baylor moved No.-2 Pepperdine 16-1 on the season, while the Bears dropped 10-4.
Although the perfect 13-0 record from the season opener broke when No.-1 Georgia swept the Waves 4-0 at the ITA Team Indoor Championship last month, they are on a new winning streak and remaining with merely one loss on the season.
As usual, Pepperdine quickly captured the doubles point, winning at courts three and one. Junior Richard Johnson and freshman Omar Altman came from behind to beat Will Ward and Matt Brown 8-6 at the No.-3 position match, while the No.-1 senior Scott Doerner and sophomore Andre Begemann duo defeated the No.-19 Jon Reckewey and Matija Zgaga pair 8-6.
In singles, No.-17 Doerner easily overpowered No.-5 Lars Poerschke 6-0, 6-1 at court one. Altman followed with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Reckewey at court six. At this point, it looked like the Waves were going to have an easy win over a tough team.
Four singles matches remaining, Pepperdine needed to win only one for the overall victory. The Bears, however, didn’t let the Waves get the last point as easy as the first three. At court four, Michael Kokta overcame Johnson 6-2, 7-5, quickly followed by a win by Brown over Begemann 6-2, 6-4 at court five.
Now that four games speedily finished in two sets, the focus was on court two and three, which were having close games. Both Pepperdine’s No.-2 player senior Pedro Rico and No.-3 player senior Lovrak won their first sets but lost their second sets to left-handed opponents. The Bears tied with the Waves when No.-48 Matija Zgaga captured a close win over No.-20 Rico 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The game was tied 3-3, and all eyes were on the Lovrak and Ward’s match at court three.
Although Lovrak quickly dropped the second set and lost his momentum, he dominated the third set 6-1 to bring an impressive team win over Baylor.
After Lovrak won his match and determined the Waves’ victory, he seemed somewhat relieved.
“As soon as we won the doubles point and got two more points,” he said, “I thought it was going to be an easy game.”
But reality was different.
Before they faced the Waves, the Bears were on an eight-consecutive winning streak, including two recent wins from USC and UCLA.
They came to Malibu with a momentum, and there was no way the Waves were going to have an easy game against a team they have never won for over three years.
“I lost my focus during the second set because I wanted to see how everybody else was doing,” Lovrak said.
However, he brought the focus back to his court in the third set and fought with heart, he said. And he brought Pepperdine a victory over his old school and remained undefeated in singles with a 13-0 record on the season.
More than anyone else, Head Coach Adam Steinberg was excited for the victory.
“It’s the first win over Baylor since I came,” he said.
03-16-2006