GREG BARNETT
Sports Assistant
The women’s tennis team closed its fall season Monday at the Matador Collegiate Invitational with wins in both the singles and doubles competitions. The event was held at California State University Northridge and the field included Boise State University, University of California Santa Barbara and Pepperdine.
In the singles portion of the tournament, an all Pepperdine final is scheduled for today at 3:30 p.m. between freshman Anu Bhargava and senior Bianca Dulgheru at the Ralphs-Strauss Tennis Center. The pair waded through a field of teammates and foes to reach the final that was postponed from Tuesday due to an illness to Dulgheru.
The delay has not deterred Head Coach Gualberto Escudero’s excitement in watching his two players face off.
“It’s exciting to watch the freshman play the senior,” he said. “Anu has a lot of variety of shots and Bianca has the experience and the power.”
Bhargava said she just hopes the two of them have a good, hard fought match.
“It’s always hard playing a teammate and I hope we both play really well and bring our A game,” she said.
In the doubles portion of the tournament, Pepperdine’s team of sophomore Anete Bandere and Bhargava defeated Northridge’s team of senior Kanykey Koichumanova and junior Victoria Brymer 8-3.
Bhargava and Bandere then moved on to play fellow Pepperdine teammates junior Alex Liles and sophomore Tania Rice. Bhargava and Bandere took the match 8-3 to reach the finals.
On the other side of the bracket, Dulgheru and senior Sylvia Kosakowski defeated Boise State’s team of juniors Laura Baum and Jana Mackova, 8-5 to reach the finals against Bhargava and Bandere.
In the final match, the experience of the seniors prevailed as Dulgheru and Kosakowski defeated Bhargava and Bandere 8-4.
“They’ve been together for so long it’s hard to play against them,” Bhargava said. “They really stepped it up, playing them in practice and playing against them in a tournament was a lot different.”
The Waves are next on the court Sunday Jan. 20 at home against Cal Poly. Escudero has high expectations for his team’s spring season and hopes they can get past the second round of the NCAA championships this year.
“I think we’ll have a very good team beginning in January,” he said. “Our first goal is to win in the second round of nationals, we’ve been losing at the second round the last three or four years.”
11-15-2007
