College Tennis News - Pepperdine Defeats Duke, 4-3 to Advance to Quarterfinals

The Pepperdine men's tennis team (24-2) defended its No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament with a 4-3 win over ninth-seeded Duke (20-6) in the round of 16 Saturday at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Tex. After losing the doubles point, Pepperdine leaned on Richard Johnson's three-set win in the last match of the night. The Waves will face Baylor in Sunday's quarterfinal match at 2:00 p.m. PST.

For the first time in the 2005 season Pepperdine had a deficit to work out of going into singles play. Duke bested the Waves' doubles squads on courts one and two.

Jonathan Stoke and Jason Zimmerman broke Scott Doerner and Pedro Rico in the second game before taking a 3-0 lead. At 4-3 Doerner/Rico got the break back but at 7-6 with Rico serving the Blue Devils struck again.

With an 8-6 victory in already in their pocket Duke moved into a tiebreaker on court two. Charles Brezac and Ludovic Walter raced out to a 4-0 lead, but Ivor Lovrak got the Waves on the board with his serve and rode momentum until Jonas Berg served out their fifth point in a row. Duke fired an ace down the middle to cap off the match at 10-9.

Pepperdine's doubles winning streak was halted at 28 matches.

The Waves didn't trail for long as Pedro Rico jumped out to a 5-0 first set lead before putting away Jonathan Stokke 6-3. No. 25 Rico then secured his team's first point with a 6-4 second set.

It was nearly an hour before a lead was taken again on the courts. Number four saw Pepperdine's Ivor Lovrak go up a break on Peter Shultz to take a 5-3 lead in the third. Shultz retaliated, but Lovrak continued the trend and finished the match with a forehand winner on his first match point.

#5 Ludovic Walter and #34 Scott Doerner held serve for the first set on court one until Walter claimed the tiebreaker for the Blue Devils. Walter stole two of Doerner's service games in the second to draw the team score to two all.

With a three-set win already in Pepperdine's books, court six's second set was winding down with Blue Devil Ned Samuelson looking to force a third. In the tiebreaker Alexis Rafidison took four of the first five points and didn't look back. Pepperdine's lone senior beat Samuelson 6-3, 7-6(3).

At the time Rafidison gave the Waves their third point, Jonas Berg was at 4-4 in the third with Duke's Peter Rodrigues, and Richard Johnson had just broken Jason Zimmerman in the second game of their third set.

Rodrigues fended off Berg's feisty forehand long enough to dash the freshman's comeback hopes. Down as many as four points in the breaker, he cut the margin to one at 6-5, but Rodrigues controlled his serve for the final two points and the win.

Johnson, meanwhile, had distanced himself from Zimmerman, but the hot and humid climate soon caught up to both men. With stunted mobility Zimmerman was content to stay at the baseline, succumbing to Johnson's opportunistic drop shot. On the other side, Johnson covered the court playing defense on his opponent's ranging ground strokes. With a 5-1 lead in the third, Johnson served for the match. At match point he double faulted, but Zimmerman hit a backhand wide on Duke's first game point. As their bodies' pain prevailed over their minds' will, unforced errors became commonplace in the marathon game. After Johnson's cramps were stretched out, Zimmerman faulted on his second game point. The first winner in a tennis eternity gave Johnson his third match point and a chance to clinch Pepperdine's return to the national quarterfinals. The Waves would wait no longer when Zimmerman couldn't position himself around Johnson's serve and drove the ball into the net.

With Johnson's racquet sailing behind him in joy and relief, the Waves celebrated. Hours removed from their first doubles loss of the season, the stat seemed so trivial. "We didn't let us bother us," said head coach Adam Steinberg. "I'm so proud of the guys and how they reacted in singles after losing the doubles point." Not lost in the excitement was Johnson's effort. "He fought back so far. He was cramping really bad; he couldn't walk at one point."

Pepperdine will get little time to recover. The Waves take on the top-ranked Baylor Bears Sunday at 4:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. PST). In February Baylor defeated the Waves in Waco, 4-3. Since that loss, the Pepperdine has won 18 consecutive matches.