Waves Conclude Regular Season on the Road
4/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. - The #18-ranked Pepperdine women's tennis team concludes the 2015 regular season this weekend with road matches at Pacific and #45 Saint Mary's. The Waves, first place in the West Coast Conference standings at 7-0, need just one win to secure the regular-season title and the top seed at the WCC Tournament next week.
DUAL 19: #18 Pepperdine (13-5, 7-0 WCC) at Pacific (8-10, 2-5 WCC) | Friday, April 17 | 1 p.m. | Stockton, Calif.
DUAL 20: #18 Pepperdine vs. #45 Saint Mary's (11-8, 5-2 WCC) | Saturday, April 18 | 11 a.m. | Moraga, Calif.
COVERAGE: Available updates can be followed on Twitter @PeppWTEN ... Links to available coverage can always be found on the women's tennis schedule page at PepperdineSports.com.
LOOKING AHEAD: Pepperdine has already secured a top-six spot in the WCC standings, ensuring a bye into the quarterfinal round of the WCC Tournament ... The annual conference tournament returns to the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego on April 22-25 ... The Waves will get action underway on Thursday, April 23 ... The championship match is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 25.
LOOKING BACK: The Waves served up a 6-1 win at Loyola Marymount last week Thursday to score 1.5 points in the Wells Fargo PCH Cup standings ... Pepperdine then celebrated Senior Day for Lorraine Guillermo vs. Portland on Friday at home ... The Waves shut out the Pilots 7-0, with Guillermo fittingly clinching the dual at 4-0 ... Pepperdine hit the road for a final non-conference tilt, falling to #13 Stanford by a 6-1 tally.
OPPONENT NOTES: Pacific is 8-10 on the season, including WCC wins over San Diego and BYU ... Saint Mary's is in a tie for second place in the conference at 5-2, and is 11-8 overall ... The Gaels have dropped close 4-3 decisions to Portland and San Francisco ... SMC enters the week ranked #45 with Jana McCord and Parmida Kaur listed at #64 in the doubles rankings.
LOOKING FURTHER BACK: Pepperdine blanked both #69 San Francisco and Santa Clara, 7-0, during the first weekend of April in Malibu ... The Waves' ace Lorraine Guillermo charted two straight-set triumphs to bring her win streak to 12 in a row.
WCC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Lorraine Guillermo and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai earned their first WCC Doubles Team of the Week nod on April 1 for their pair of wins at San Diego and BYU ... Michaela Capannolo was the year's first player of the week honoree (Feb. 18) ... Lorraine Guillermo has been voted WCC Singles Player of the Week three times (Feb. 24, March 3, March 17) ... Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox have earned WCC Doubles Team of the Week honors twice (Feb. 24, March 17).
IN THE RANKINGS: The Waves opened the 2015 dual season at #26 in the ITA team rankings, reached as high as #14 and are currently at #18 ... Senior Lorraine Guillermo began her final campaign ranked a then-career-best #17 in singles, reached as high as #9, and currently sits at a WCC-best #12 ... Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai has currently is ranked #78 ... Christine Maddox and Matea Cutura moved to a career-best #21 on Tuesday ... Maddox and Cutura are the highest-ranked doubles duo in the league.
WCC PRESEASON POLL: The defending West Coast Conference champion Waves were picked to finish first in the WCC this year in a poll of the league's coaches. Pepperdine tallied 79 points and seven first-place votes to finish six points ahead of Saint Mary's (73, 1 first-place vote). BYU snagged the remaining two first-place votes to finish third behind 66 points. The remaining standings are as follows: 4. San Francisco (53); 5. San Diego (43); 6. Santa Clara (39); 7. Portland (35); 8. Gonzaga (28); 9. Loyola Marymount (19); 10. Pacific (13). The 2015 All-WCC Preseason team was comprised of Pepperdine's Lorraine Guillermo, along with Lucia Butkovska (Portland), Danielle Flores (Saint Mary's), Mayci Jones (BYU), Andrea Ka (San Francisco) and Maja Mladenovic (Portland).
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 ranks second among all NCAA Div. I 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.
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.
