Waves Climb to No. 11 Ranking
3/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 15, 2005
Malibu, Calif. - Claiming their highest ranking of the season, the No. 11 Pepperdine men's tennis team will entertain Miami and Purdue at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center this week. The 10-2 Waves have won nine of their last 10 matches including two big wins in Berkeley last weekend.
Pepperdine seemed to have no trouble dismissing of No. 32 TCU 4-0 on Saturday before they upended the host Bears by a 5-2 score on Sunday. On tap for the Waves this week are two lower-ranked, but hungry teams.
Miami comes in at No. 67 in the nation and brings a 7-5 record into Malibu. After a six match winning streak earlier in the season, the Hurricanes have fallen off and are riding a four-match losing skid. At the top of their lineup, the Canes post 64th-ranked Tim Kerbs and No. 87 Josh Cohen. In doubles Cohen and Eric Hechtman make up the country's 52nd-ranked pair.
Purdue boasts No. 89 Paul Rose atop their scoresheet, but the junior is the Boilermakers' only ranked singles player. Purdue's 3-5 record comes after four losses to ranked teams, but the Boilermakers did upset 38th-ranked Vanderbilt 5-2 to close out February.
Their current No. 11 ranking is Pepperdine's highest national mark since head coach Adam Steinberg took over the program following the 2002 season. Directly ahead of the Waves are No. 10 Texas A&M and No. 9 Stanford, both of whom remain on Pepperdine's 2005 schedule.
Juniors Pedro Rico and Scott Doerner head Pepperdine's surging lineup. After falling to the nation's top player (Baylor's Benedikt Dorsch), Rico is 3-0 in the number two position behind Doerner. Riding the hot hand, Doerner was moved to the number one spot after winning his first six matches. He continued his success at the top and now holds a 10-1 dual-match singles record.
Supporting the duo is Jonas Berg, who hasn't lost in over a month and Ivor Lovrak who has settled into the number five spot quite nicely. After struggling early, the junior transfer has posted an 8-2 singles mark in the Waves' last 10 matches, including five wins in a row.
Wednesday's match with Miami will begin at 1:00 p.m., while Purdue will challenge at 12:30 on Friday.
