Waves Meet Stanford at Second Round of NCAA Tournament

MALIBU, Calif. Â With wins from the fourth, fifth and sixth singles players, the Pepperdine men’s tennis team defeated University of Hawaii, 4-0, Saturday afternoon, to advance to the second round of the NCAA Division I Tournament, hosted by Pepperdine.

“It feels good to get past round one,” said Pepperdine Head Coach Adam Steinberg. “We got off to a slow start and fortunately we came out of it. Hawaii is a tough team with a lot of class.”

 

The Waves won the doubles point after a competitive Hawaii team took the lead early in the match on court No. 1 and 2. Hawaii was up 4-2 on court No. 1 before Andre Begemann (Blomberg, Germany and Omar Altmann (Cairo, Egypt) turned things around and defeated Saschsa Heinman and Andreas Weber (Hawaii), 8-5. Court No. 3 finished second to clinch the double point with James Lemke (Melbourne, Australia) and Mahmoud Kamel (Paris, France) defeating Craig Faulk and Spence Mendoza (Hawaii), 8-3. Court No. 2 was tied at 8-8 when Pepperdine clinched the doubles point.  Bassam Beidas (Cairo, Egypt) and Rikus de Villiers played a tough match against the Rainbow Warriors Jeff Fitch and Dennis Lajola.

Kamel led the Waves in singles by finishing first on court No. 5 with a win over Fitch (Hawaii), 6-1, 6-2. Lemke defeated Mendoza (Hawaii) on court No. 4, 6-1, 6-0. Brian Brogan (Los Gatos, Calif.) clinched the win for the Pepperdine with a victory over Faulk (Hawaii) on Court No. 6.

“I knew we had won on courts 4 and 5. I couldn’t see the other scores because of where court 6 is,” said Brogan. “Coach Steinberg came over to me when I was up 3-2 in the second set and said we really need you to step up and take care of business.”

The Rainbow Warrior’s singles player, Heinman gave Beidas a battle on court No. 2 with a win in game one 4-6 and a 0-2 lead when the match commenced due to Pepperdine’s team win. Beidas is on a 16 game winning streak and was WCC April Singles Athlete of the Month.

“I’m awfully proud of our team,” Hawaii Head Coach John Nelson said. “We played one of the top team in the country and I honestly thought we had a chance.  We’re all disappointed and that shows we weren’t content with just getting here.”  

On Sunday (May 11), at 1 p.m., the Waves will play Stanford for a trip to the NCAA Division I Team Finals, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 16-20.

 

Tennis Match Results

University of Hawaii vs Pepperdine

May 10, 2008 at

Pepperdine 4, University of Hawaii 0

 

Singles competition

1. Andre Begemann (PEP) vs. Dennis Lajola (UH) 6-4, 2-0, unfinished

2. Bassam Beidas (PEP) vs. Sascha Heinemann (UH) 4-6, 0-2, unfinished

3. Omar Altmann (PEP) vs. Andreas Weber (UH) 6-6, unfinished

4. James Lemke (PEP) def. Spence Mendoza (UH) 6-1, 6-0

5. Mahmoud Kamel (PEP) def. Jeff Fitch (UH) 6-1, 6-2

6. Brian Brogan (PEP) def. Craig Faulk (UH) 6-0, 6-2

 

Doubles competition

1. #24 Omar Altmann/Andre Begemann (PEP) def. Sascha Heinemann/Andreas Weber (UH) 8-5

2. Jeff Fitch/Dennis Lajola (UH) vs. Bassam Beidas/Johannes de Villiers (PEP) no result

3. James Lemke/Mahmoud Kamel (PEP) def. Craig Faulk/Spence Mendoza (UH) 8-3

Match Notes:

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (5,4,6)

 

Waves Meet Stanford at Second Round of NCAA Tournament

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