MACK CARROLL/Assistant Photo Editor
GREG BARNETT
Sports Editor
The No.-16 Pepperdine men’s tennis team lost its first match of the season to No.-9 UCLA, 5-2, at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on Tuesday afternoon. The match was postponed until Tuesday due to heavy rain over the weekend.
“It’s always disappointing when you lose,” Head Coach Adam Steinberg said. “But we competed well and the guys had a great attitude.”
The Waves got off to a good start, earning the doubles point by taking two out of three doubles matches. Senior Andre Begemann and junior Omar Altmann won their doubles match over senior Harel Srugo and freshman Nick Meister, 8-5. The team of sophomores Bassam Beidas and James Lemke defeated senior Mathieu Dehaine and freshman Holden Seguso, 8-4.
“We played well in doubles,” Begemann said. “Then we went into singles and everyone got down really fast.”
Following doubles play, the Bruins turned things around in the singles portion of the match. UCLA took five of six singles matches with Srugo clinching the match with a win over Begemann in number one singles (6-3, 4-6, 6-4). Altmann won the only singles match for Pepperdine after overcoming losing the first set, 6-0. He fought back to take the final two sets, 6-4, 7-5.
“[Omar] has a big heart,” Steinberg said. “He showed it and he played great.”
In other singles action, Dehaine defeated Beidas (5-7, 6-2, 6-4) and Seguso toppled Lemke (7-5, 6-1). Rounding out the match were Meister defeating junior Brian Broghan (6-2, 7-6) and senior Jeremy Dream beating sophomore Mahmoud Kamel (7-5, 6-1).
The Waves travel east to take on the University of Michigan on Friday and Ohio State University on Sunday. Steinberg said it’s good to get the kinks out now and expects the team to play well.
“We just need to play with more confidence and be more aggressive,” he said.
01-31-2008
