MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women’s tennis team, making its 25th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship, opens the tournament on Friday, May 11 against Purdue. The winner will face either Sacramento State or host California on Saturday, May 12.
MATCH #1 | FIRST ROUND - Friday (May 11) at Hellman Tennis Complex: #22 Purdue (18-6) vs. #41 Pepperdine (15-8) at 10 a.m.
MATCH #2 | FIRST ROUND - Friday (May 11) at Hellman Tennis Complex: #9 California (17-6) vs. #57 Sacramento State (15-9) at 1 p.m.
MATCH #3 | SECOND ROUND - Saturday (May 12) at Hellman Tennis Complex: Winner Match #1 vs. Winner Match #2 at 3 p.m.
COVERAGE - Live video and scoring will be available through Cal’s website and can be accessed here:
http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-tennis/live.html
LOOKING BACK - The Waves won the first-ever West Coast Conference regular season title after going a perfect 8-0, before placing second at the league tournament. Pepperdine downed Santa Clara in the semifinals before falling to San Diego 4-2 in the championship match.
ATHENS - Following the first and second rounds contested at campus sites around the country, the remainder of the NCAA Championships will play out at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. The team tournament runs May 17-22, and the singles and doubles championship follows on May 23-28. Khunpak Issara and Lorraine Guillermo will represent the Waves in the 32-team doubles tournament.
DOUBLES PROWESS - Lorraine Guillermo and Khunpak Issara own a 19-3 doubles record this dual season, and earned their first win over a ranked opponent on March 12. The Wave duo defeated UCLA’s Robin Anderson and Skylar Morton, ranked #14 in the ITA doubles rankings, 8-4. They are currently riding an 13 match win streak and sit at #32 in the ITA doubles poll. They are the only WCC doubles pair to be listed in the ITA rankings and recently picked up their third WCC Doubles Team of the Month award of the season.
ALL-WCC TEAM - The Waves earned high acclaim in the 2012 all-conference awards. Lorraine Guillermo was dubbed WCC Freshman of the Year, becoming seventh player in Pepperdine history to do so. Guillermo also picked up second-team honors in singles and first-team accolades in doubles. Khunpak Issara made the first team roster in both singles and doubles, while Ale Granillo made All-WCC singles second team. Ali Walters and Arianna Colffer both earned honorable mention status in both singles and doubles.
WRITING RECORDS - Lorraine Guillermo and Khunpak Issara’s doubles win tally of 19 ranks tied for fifth in Pepperdine’s single season record book.
RANKINGS - As a team, the Waves are currently ranked #41, while Khunpak Issara sits at #62 in the singles rankings. Ale Granillo is ranked #105 in the poll. Pepperdine’s #1 doubles pair, Issara and Lorraine Guillermo, have reached as high as #28 in the doubles rankings, and currently are listed at #32.
FIRST/SECOND ROUND OPPONENTS - Purdue is ranked #22 and is 18-6 after winning its first-ever Big Ten Tournament championship. Jennifer Rabot leads the Boilermakers with a #83 singles ranking. The hosting Golden Bears are ranked #9 and have an impressive five players in the singles rankings including Jana Juricova (#8), Zsofi Susanyi (#13), Anett Schutting (#30), Tayler Davis (#48) and Annie Goransson (#67). Goransson and Schutting are listed at #5 in doubles, while Juricova and Susanyi rank #15. Sacramento State is ranked #57 as a team and is led by Rebeca Delgado and Tatsiana Kapshai, who ranked #74 in doubles.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE - Pepperdine won the first-ever WCC regular season championship after going a perfect 8-0 vs. league opponents. 2012 marked the first season that all nine member schools faced each other during the regular season, prior to the conference tournament. In past seasons, teams were not required to play other teams in the conference and seeding at the WCC Championships was based on ITA rankings and overall records. At the WCC Tournament, the Waves placed second to San Diego.
WCC PLAYER OF THE MONTH - FEBRUARY - Khunpak Issara and Lorraine Guillermo went a team-best 5-2 in doubles during the month of February. On February 10 the Waves faced Florida, the defending 2011 NCAA team champions and ranked #1 at the time. Although Pepperdine suffered a 5-2 loss, Issara and Guillermo tallied a win over the Gator’s top doubles team of Allie Will (ranked #1 in singles by the ITA) and Alexandra Cercone. In the final dual of the month, the Wave tandem rallied from behind to defeat Arizona State’s Jacqueline Cako and Hannah James 7-1 in the tiebreaker to help clinch the doubles point for Pepperdine. Issara and Guillermo were previously awarded WCC Doubles Team of the Month in September of last fall.
SOCIAL MEDIA - Fans can follow the Waves on Twitter @PepperdineWaves and “like” us on Facebook by searching for Pepperdine Athletics.
WCC PLAYERS OF THE MONTH - NOVEMBER - Freshman Lorraine Guillermo went a perfect 3-0 at the Mission Hills Desert Classic to finish her rookie fall season with a team-best 9-3 record in singles and earn WCC Singles Player of the Month for November.
WCC PLAYERS OF THE MONTH - OCTOBER - Khunpak Issara tallied a team-high four victories during the month of October to win her first WCC Singles Player of the Month award.
WCC PLAYERS OF THE MONTH - SEPTEMBER - The Waves swept the first installment of the WCC Player of the Month awards, winning in both singles and doubles. Ale Granillo was named Singles Player of the Month after a 5-0 start and winning the singles bracket at the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational. Khunpak Issara and Lorraine Guillermo won Doubles Team of the Month honors after reaching the semifinals of the same event.
ROSTER - Pepperdine returns eight letterwinners from last year’s 15-8 team, including 2011 all-conference team members in Arianna Colffer, Khunpak Issara, Ale Granillo, Andrea Oates and Marie Zalameda. Joining the team is Walnut, Calif. native Lorraine Guillermo, who ranked in the top-10 on the Class of 2011 National Recruiting list.
GUALBERTO ESCUDERO - Now in his 35th season at the helm of the program, Gualberto Escudero enters the 2011-12 season with a career record of 604-308 (.667). He took over as head coach in 1977-78 after a decorated career as a student-athlete at Pepperdine. On the court, he was a finalist at the 1969 WCAC singles tournament and won the doubles title with John Lovelace. Pepperdine won conference titles in 1969 and 1970 and finished second the next two seasons. His transition from player to coach was a successful one as Escudero has tutored 29 All-Americans, and was honored as WCC Coach of the Year on three occasions.
2011 RECAP - The Wave reclaimed the West Coast Conference title in 2011, defeating Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary’s en route the championship match versus San Diego. The team made its 24th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and finished the season with 15 dual match victories. Anamika Bhargava earned All-WCC first team distinction in both singles and doubles, becoming the first Pepperdine player in program history and just the second in the conference to do so all four seasons of her collegiate career. Other all-conference honorees in 2011 include Arianna Colffer (singles, first team), Khunpak Issara (singles, second team; doubles, first team), Andrea Oates (singles, honorable mention), Marie Zalameda (doubles, first team) and Ale Granillo (doubles, first team).
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men’s sports - one of just 16 schools to have accomplished this feat - and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest enrollment and is the only school not in a major conference. Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation’s most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #55 overall on U.S. News and World Report’s list of America’s best colleges. The 2011-12 school year marks Pepperdine’s 75th anniversary.
