Following its 6-1 loss to Ohio State Monday March 23 the Pepperdine men’s tennis team bounced back Friday when it took down the Rice Owls 4-3 in its first contest of a two-match Texas road trip.
The Waves’ new lineup proved to be successful as the team won the doubles point 2-1 to take the early 1-0 team lead. The underlying theme of the day however was “come-from-behind win.” After dropping the first doubles match 8-4 Pepperdine rallied back to win the next two.
Senior Omar Altmann and junior Bassam Beidas had another impressive performance as the Waves’ No.-1 doubles duo. Altmann and Beidas knocked off their opponents 9-8 for the come-from-behind win.
With the score knotted at 1-1 sophomore Stuart Keplar returned to the lineup and his home state to post a 9-8 win alongside doubles partner freshman Alex Llompart.
“My dad was at the Rice match Keplar said. It was fun playing in front of him again.”
Down 5-0 at one point and missing shots left and right Keplar and Llompart found themselves up against a wall. But they battled back to even the score despite unfavorable weather conditions.
“When [Rice] got up 3-0 there was a rain delay then when they got up 5-0 there was another one Keplar said. Right after that we came back out and caught fire. We started hitting every return at their feet. Everything was just going in.”
Keplar and Llompart finished off Christian Sarvia and Dennis Polyakov of Rice 9-8 clinching the doubles point for the Waves while fending off two match point opportunities by Rice in the process.
Even the coaches were impressed.
“Stuart moved into the doubles lineup today and played amazing for us said Head Coach Adam Steinberg.
In singles, Pepperdine kept up its intensity and aggressive style of play, as Altmann defeated Christoph Muller, 6-4, 7-5, and Beidas beat Bruno Rosa, 7-5, 6-4.
The team was unable to carry the momentum into Sunday’s match against the Baylor Bears, however. The Waves came out a bit flat and ended up on the losing side against the Bears for the second time this season. Despite the 4-1 loss, Altmann and Beidas tallied a doubles win, improving their record to 21-3.
The duo beat David Galic and Jordan Rux, 9-8 (7-5), but both Waves’ stars fell just short in their singles matches. Baylor’s Rux toppled Altmann, 6-2, 7-5, and Denes Lukacs defeated Beidas, 7-5, 6-1.
Pepperdine will play host to San Diego St. today at 1 p.m. at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center.
[SDSU] definitely has some talent but we just need to start playing the right way Keplar said. We got beat down at Baylor and even if we win [today] it’s all about not missing approach shots getting serves in and staying aggressive. We can’t play scared.”
Freshman Daniel Moss had similar thoughts about what the team needs to fine tune before the upcoming West Coast Conference tournament which will begin on April 17.
“Right now we’re just working on our transition game. We need to be more consistent finishing points and we need to put more pressure on teams Moss said. If we do that we can knock off some of the tough teams.”