JANE LEE
Assistant Sports Editor
The No.-28 Pepperdine women’s tennis team continued its successful season start, moving to a record of 2-0 after defeating No.-68 UC Irvine 5-2 Saturday afternoon at Irvine’s Anteater Tennis Stadium.
Pepperdine won the doubles point after winning matches in the No.-1 and No.-02 positions. The No.-22 doubles team of senior Merve Asimigil and sophomore Sylvia Kosakowski came out victorious 8-6 over Irvine’s Bela Mijik and Clare Fermin, while the No.-21 Waves doubles team of sophomore Bianca Dulgheru and junior Eva Dickes defeated Jayme Hu and Inna Agababian 8-5.
Pepperdine clinched the victory by winning four singles matches. Kosakowski won 6-1, 6-4 over Mijik, while junior Caroline Raba followed with a 6-3, 6-0 defeat over Agababian.
“I thought I played pretty well against UCI and so did my teammates,” Kosakowski said. “Some of us had tougher matches than others, but we pulled through for the win.”
Pepperdine senior Natalie Braverman beat Fermin 6-3, 6-2 and Dickes handed Ashley Siddall a 7-5, 6-2 defeat.
Irvine’s Becky Bernhard upset No.-15 Dulgheru in three sets, while Ali Borowicz defeated Asimigil 7-5, 6-1.
The Waves will play host to Rice University on Friday at 11:30 a.m., before taking on Long Beach State on Saturday in an 11 a.m. match.
The Owls of Rice are 2-0 after defeating Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Rice senior Blair DiSesa is ranked 31st nationally, while sophomore Dominique Karas is ranked in the 68th spot. DiSesa and freshman Alanna Rodgers are ranked 30th nationally in doubles.
Long Beach, which has won back-to-back Big West Conference championships, is 0-1 after losing to No.-5 USC in its season opener.
Bringing in the competition will be the Waves’ No.-21 doubles team of Dulgheru and Dickes, along with the No.-22 Wave duo of Kosakowski and Asimigil, which are both undefeated for the season.
“I think we all just have to stay focused with both matches,” Kosakowski said of this weekend’s competition. “Long Beach State has a pretty good team this year, and if we can win both matches it would be really good for our team.”
01-26-2006