PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
5/25/2012

tennisDAVID TESIC/Assistant Photo Editor

Waves topple Mustangs in dual

GREG BARNETT
 Sports Editor

The No.-18 Pepperdine women’s tennis team opened its dual match season with a 5-2 home win over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Sunday afternoon.

“Teams are always tougher every year and every match is going to be well-fought,” Head Coach Gualberto Escudero said. “They picked it up and when it came down to win the close games, we did.”

The Waves (1-0) began the day by winning two out of the three doubles matches to take the doubles point. Seniors Bianca Dulgheru and Sylvia Kosakowski took their doubles match, 8-6, over sophomores Brittany Blalock and Steffi Wong.

Sophomore Anete Bandere and freshman Anu Bhargava won their match, 8-4, over freshman Amy Markhoff and junior Shannon Brady. Junior Alex Liles and sophomore Jill Braverman dropped their match, 8-2, to sophomore Diane Filip and junior Maria Malec.

“It’s always good to win the doubles point because you don’t have to fight back in singles,” Dulgheru said.

Even though the team’s success in doubles allowed them to not worry as much about singles play, the Waves still managed to win four of the possible six singles points.

Pepperdine’s top three players all won their matches to guarantee a Waves victory. Dulgheru topped Blalock, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, and Kosakowski defeated Wong, 7-5, 6-3. Bhargava won her match, 6-3, 6-3, over Malec and sophomore Tania Rice took her match against Filip 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

Bhargava said the key to winning her match was using different sorts of shots such as lobs, slices and drop shots because Malec was staying on the baseline and just getting her shots back.

“I got frustrated after struggling in a few games early but then I took the match pretty easily,” she said.

Rounding out the singles, two Waves dropped long three-set matches. Junior Alex Liles dropped a three-set match against Brady, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, and Bandere fell to Whitney Peterson, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

“I don’t think any of us played really well,” Dulgheru said. “We were a bit nervous and didn’t play our best tennis.”

The Waves are back on the court Saturday when they host No.-13 Baylor University at 11 a.m.

Dulgheru said the team has to be ready for a Baylor squad that has much more experience than Cal Poly and also a team with a much higher level of play.

“We need to be ready to be on the court for a long time,” she said. “We just have to be patient and be consistent.”

Submitted 01-24-2008