Women's Tennis Sets Sights on Regional Championships
10/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine women's tennis team sets its sights on the 2014 USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championship, to begin on Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. The Waves will not only be competing for valuable wins, which could translate into singles and doubles rankings, they will also be working towards individually qualifying for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships next month.
TOURNAMENT 3: Pepperdine at the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championships | Oct. 16-20 | San Diego, Calif.
EVENT INFO: The annual regional championship tournament will take place at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif. ... The tournament brings in talent from all area schools from Southern California, Hawaii and Arizona ... The Barnes Tennis Center is also home of the West Coast Conference Championships ... Regional championship results weight heavy on spring singles and doubles rankings ... Regional winners also gain automatic entry into the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships held at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center (home of the U.S. Open) in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
PEPPERDINE AT REGIONALS: Lorraine Guillermo, ranked #20 in the ITA preseason singles rankings, is a two-time singles semifinalist at regionals ... The now graduated Ale Granillo reached the quarterfinals in 2012 and 2013 ... In addition to Guillermo and Granillo, three more Waves made it past the first two rounds of the tournament in 2013 including Danielle Feneridis, Matea Cutura and Yuki Chiang ... Three Pepperdine pairs reached the double quarterfinal in 2013.
THE FIELD: The USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championships brings together all teams from the region ... Perennial powers USC and UCLA will be in attendance, as well as Hawaii, Arizona, Arizona State, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, LMU and more.
COVERAGE: Recaps and results will be posted on www.PepperdineSports.com daily ... Any available score updates will be posted on Twitter at @PeppWTEN ... Draws are available at ITATennis.com ... Follow @ITATennis and the hashtag #USTAITARegionals for more tweets on the event.
LOOKING BACK: Pepperdine competed at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships two weeks ago in Pacific Palisades, Calif. ... Lorraine Guillermo and Michaela Capannolo represented the Waves ... Guillermo reached the round of 16 in the singles main draw ... In doubles, Guillermo and Capannolo suffered a first-round loss in qualifying.
LOOKING AHEAD: The fall season continues on Oct. 30-Nov. 2 with the Jack Kramer Club Collegiate Invitational in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.
Per Nilsson: Per Nilsson returned to Pepperdine in June 2014 to succeed Gualberto Escudero as head coach of the women's tennis team ... He was an assistant coach for the Pepperdine men's tennis team from 2003-07 under head coach Adam Steinberg, where the Waves went 119-38 in those five seasons ... Pepperdine won the NCAA team championship in 2006 with Nilsson on the sidelines ... He was the head men's coach at Mississippi State, his alma mater, for seven seasons from 2008-2014 ... Nilsson compiled a record of 95-76 during his time at MSU.
Gualberto Escudero - Gualberto Escudero ended the 2013-14 campaign with a career record of 651-334 (.661) in his final season as head coach ... He is believed to rank second among all NCAA women's tennis coaches -- active or inactive -- for his win total, and is just one of three coaches to reach the 600 wins milestone ... He stepped down at the end of the 2014 season and now serves as associate head coach ... Escudero 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 31 All-Americans, and was honored as WCC Coach of the Year on four occasions ... Escudero was inducted into the Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame in a ceremony on Oct. 20 , 2013.
2014 SEASON RECAP: The Pepperdine women's tennis team went 19-5 in 2014, winning both the West Coast Conference regular-season and tournament championships ... The Waves set a new program record with 15 consecutive wins ... The previous record was set at 14 consecutive dual match victories in 1999 ... Pepperdine ended the 2014 regular-season with a 9-0 record at home, marking just the second season in program history the Waves have gone undefeated at home in single year ... Lorraine Guillermo was an All-WCC first team selection in both singles and doubles ... Ale Granillo and Matea Cutura were All-WCC second team picks in singles and together in doubles ... Guillermo was joined by Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai as a first-team doubles honoree ... Michaela Capannolo and Yuki Chiang were also voted to the All-WCC second team in doubles and went on to reach the second round of the NCAA Doubles Championship.
#PURPOSE: The Pepperdine University Department of Athletics is committed to Christian values, to the academic well-being of all of our student-athletes and to competing for championships ... We prepare students for success by challenging them to think differently - find your purpose, serve others and lead by example ... The Competing with Purpose campaign highlights the commitment to our core values that student-athletes, coaches and staff dedicate themselves to daily ... Competing with Purpose provides the foundation on which champions are built.
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 17 schools to have accomplished this feat — and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 23 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). 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 #54 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
