Pepperdine Team Page
The Pepperdine women's tennis team flexed its collective muscle this weekend at the West Coast Conference tournament in San Diego, Calif. The Waves capped off a perfect weekend, hoisting the championship trophy for the 14th time in 15 years after beating University of San Diego 4-0 in the final match.
In the finals Pepperdine got early help from its numbers one and two teams. Caroline Raba teamed with Sylvia Kosakowski to take out Emma Murphy and Lauren Perl by an 8-3 count. Eva Dickes and Bianca Dulgheru bested Jenny Brown and Lauren Kazarian 8-1 as the Waves seized a 1-0 lead.
"In the doubles we jumped out to a 3-0 lead on two, maybe three courts, and it was really nice to see. They came back and made it a really nice doubles match, but we won convincingly," said Pepperdine head coach Gualberto Escudero. "I thought it would carry into singles and have a great start, but it wasn't the case."
Pepperdine overcame USD's short-lived resurgence, and closed out the Toreros with the first three matches decided. At four Dickes did away with Helene Lindstrand 6-4, 6-0 and her partner Dulgheru had similar success against Kazarian, winning 6-2, 6-4.
On court three Sylvia Kosakowski came back from a surprise 3-6 loss in the first set of her singles match with Perl. The Pepperdine freshman won the next two sets 6-4, 6-2 as the Waves took home the win.
Kosakowski admitted to feeling the pressure in the second set, knowing that the team was starting slowly. "The first set was hard, especially for me. I didn't have my game on...I felt like we were pretty close in the second set, so I felt some pressure. Other than that, in the third set I just breezed through it."
As if a third WCC trophy in as many years wasn't enough, several Waves are carrying individual hardware home from San Diego.
Dulgheru was named the WCC "Freshman of the Year" as a result of her phenomenal 19-2 singles record. Her success also earned a spot on the first all-conference singles team, where she is joined by sophomore Caroline Raba. Earning honorable mention to the singles squad were Dickes and Kosakowski.
Doubles honors also came in pairs for the Waves when Raba/Kosakowski were named to the first team, and Dickes/Dulgheru was an honorable mention.
When the championship match was abandoned, Raba was beating back-to-back WCC "Player of the Year" Emma Murphy 6-2, 5-2.
The Waves now own a 14-8 record and will await the announcement of their NCAA regional championship schedule. The first two rounds of the national tournament are slated for May 13-15. Selections are made on May 4.
