The Waves prevailed over their weakness in doubles Wednesday at UCLA as they took the doubles point yet the No. 27-ranked team fell to the 10th-ranked Bruins in a close 4-3 ending. The Waves are now 10-10 this season while the Bruins moved up to 13-5.
“We got the doubles point against one of the top teams in the country sophomore Daniel Moss said. We have been struggling a lot this year to get that point against the top teams so we were happy with that.”
Senior Bassam Beidas led the team with wins at the No. 1 doubles position playing with sophomore Alex Llompart and the No. 1 singles position. The No. 22-ranked duo defeated the No. 41-ranked Bruins pair 8-5. In singles No. 33-ranked Beidas had a 6-3 6-3 victory over No. 43-ranked Haythem Abid.
“I thought I had a good day overall Beidas said. I played pretty well against someone I do not have a good record against. But we are very disappointed that we were not able to pull out a win in several close matches.”
Both No. 2 and No.3 singles also went into three sets but Llompart and freshman Sebastian Fanselow were unable to end with singles wins. Fanselow lost at No. 2 6-1 6-7 6-4 and Llompart at No. 3 6-4 5-7 7-5.
“We were proud with the way we played sophomore Hugh Clarke said. All the guys fought really hard in the singles. We were down but everyone hung in there and at one point we felt we could have won today. We need to work on our serves and our movement. Those are the two main things holding us back from beating these top 10 teams in the country consistently.”
Freshman Finn Tearney was the only other Wave to win in singles playing the No. 4 position. He battled for the win with a close 4-6 7-6 6-4 match. But by the time of Tearney’s match the win had already been decided for the Bruins as they had won four of the first five singles matches.
“I played well and it was great to get through a long match with a win Tearney said. But all parts of my game need to improve— mainly my serve so I can get more free points. We got the doubles point which was good but losing overall is always disappointing. We are just going to regroup and get ready for our next matches.”
Tearney was also part of the duo responsible for the other Pepperdine point as he played with Clarke at No. 2 doubles for an 8-6 win over the Bruins.
“I feel I played really well in doubles today Clarke said. I was returning a lot better and I think that is what made the difference. Finn and I have found a good balance and we have become a good doubles pair.”
The next three matches for Pepperdine will be played at home. The Waves will face the University of Denver and UC Santa Barbara in a double–header Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Waves face West Coast Conference rival Saint Mary’s on Thursday April 15.
“We have a month now to get ready for the tournament Moss said. We have the team thing down and understand what we all need to work on. Now we just need to work on executing it by the end of the year.”