MARC CHOQUETTE
Staff Writer
The Pepperdine women’s tennis team split up this weekend to serve it up in two tournaments to somewhat mixed results. The first was the National Intercollegiate Indoor Tennis Championships at Ohio State University in Columbus. The other tournament, the Fall Desert Intercollegiate Classic, took place a tad closer in Palm Springs, Calif.
The four who headed to Ohio for the tournament were senior Merve Asimgil, junior Eva Dickes, and sophomores Sylvia Kosakowski and Bianca Dulgheru. Competing in Palm Springs were senior Natalie Braverman, junior Leslie Sisser, sophomore Vanessa Dunlap and freshman Alicia Poladian.
Coach Cintia Tortorella, who was with the squad in Palm Springs, said the competition was tough. The doubles squad of Dunlap and Poladian were defeated by the duo of Becky Bernhard and Leslie Shih from UC Irvine, 8-3. The singles efforts of the two were stopped in their tracks by Loyola Marymount University. Robin Baker took care of Dunlap (6-0, 6-0), while Patricia Hubi took care of Poladian (6-1, 6-1). The consolation round didn’t fare well for the two either, with Dunlap dropping a decision to Bernhard and Poladian dropping her match to USC’s Whitney Peterson.
The two upperclassmen of the squad fared better, winning their respective first-round matches. Sisser defeated Shih of UC Irvine (6-1, 6-3) while Braverman took down Vanessa Heioux of Fresno State (7-5, 6-1). The second round halted progress, however. Baylor’s Klara Zrustova eliminated Braverman in a very tight match (7-6, 7-6) while USC’s Carine Vermuelen beat Sisser, ending Pepperdine’s chances to advance into the next round.
The other half of the team didn’t get to spend the weekend in sunny Palm Springs, however. Ohio State hosted the Indoor Championships beginning Thursday, Nov. 3. In singles play, Dulgheru advanced in her first round match against Ashley Bentley of Alabama (7-5, 6-2) before dropping her second round match to No.-8 seed Theresa Logar of Stanford (6-4, 6-1).
The doubles squad of Asimgil and Kosakowski dropped their first-round match to the fourth-seeded team of Caroline Basu and Shadisha Robinson of Georgia (8-5), while TCU’s Helena Besovic and Anna Sydorska (8-4) eliminated Dulgheru and Dickes. In the consolation draw, Dulgheru and Dickes redeemed themselves and defeated the Ohio State duo of Julie Blackmore and Caitlin O’Keefe (8-3). Asimgil and Kosakowski did not fare as well, dropping their consolation match to a tough duo from Northwestern (8-1).
In the consolation finals, the Wave team of Dulgheru and Dickes lost a heartbreaker to Cristelle Grier and Alexis Prousis of Northwestern, the same team that took eliminated Asimgil and Kosakowski in the previous round.
Overall, coaches Escudero and Tortorella said they believe the team played very well, not only over the past weekend, but as a whole now that the first half of the season is coming to a close. The fall season has shown overall “consistency and results” and has been improved substantially from the great play of Kosakowski and Dulgheru, according to Tortorella.
Coming up for the Waves is the Cal Poly Invitational in San Luis Obispo, and then the team has the remainder of the year off, until they return to action against Cal Poly on Jan. 6 in Malibu.
11-10-2005
