Top-Seeded Waves Enter WCC Tournament on Thursday
4/22/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. --Postseason action begins this week for the #19-ranked Pepperdine women's tennis team. The Waves enter the West Coast Conference Tournament as the top seed and will face either Pacific or San Diego on Thursday, April 23 in the quarterfinals.
DUAL 21 - WCC QUARTERFINAL: #1-seed Pepperdine (14-6, 8-1 WCC) vs. #8 Pacific (8-12, 2-7 WCC)/#9 San Diego (3-14, 2-7 WCC) | Thursday, April 23 | 9 a.m. | San Diego, Calif.
TOURNAMENT SEEDS: Pepperdine is the top seed, followed by #2 Portland, #3 San Francisco, #4 Saint Mary's, #5 BYU, #6 Gonzaga, #7 Santa Clara, #8 Pacific, #9 San Diego and #10 Loyola Marymount.
WCC SEMIFINALS & FINALS: A win in the quarterfinals would pit the Waves against either #4 Saint Mary's or #5 BYU in the semifinals at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 24 ... The finals are scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 25.
COVERAGE: Live coverage will be provided by WCCSports.com ... 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.
POSTSEASON HONORS: Pepperdine swept all major 2015 All-West Coast Conference awards ... Lorraine Guillermo was voted the WCC Player of the Year ... Laura Gulbe took Freshman of the Year honors ... Per Nilsson was crowned Coach of the Year by his peers ... Guillermo, Gulbe and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai made up three of the six spots on the All-WCC singles first-team roster ... Matea Cutura picked up an honorable mention ... Cutura and Christine Maddox, as well as Guillermo and Runglerdkriangkrai, accounted for two of the three spots on the All-WCC doubles first team squad.
LOOKING AHEAD: The NCAA will announce the 64 tournament-bound teams on Tuesday, April 28 at 2 p.m. (PT) via a selection show to air on NCAA.com ... Singles and doubles brackets will be released via press release at 3 p.m. on April 29 ... The first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament take place on May 8-10 at 16 campus sites ... The remainder of the championships will play out at Baylor in Waco, Texas on May 14-25.
LOOKING BACK: The Waves clinched a first-place finish the WCC regular-season standings with their 4-1 win at Pacific last Friday ... The Tigers won the doubles point, but Pepperdine was dominant in singles play ... Saint Mary's played the spoiler in Saturday's regular-season finale, and topped Pepperdine by a 6-1 tally.
WCC RANKINGS: Pepperdine is the top-ranked team in the league at #19, followed by #37 Saint Mary's, #53 Portland, #64 San Francisco and #72 BYU ... Lorraine Guillermo is by far the highest ranked singles player in the WCC at #11 ... Teammate Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai follows at #90 ... Portland's Lucia Butkovska is the third and final WCC player in the singles rankings at #101 ... Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox are the top-ranked doubles team at #23 ... Jana McCord and Parminda Kaur of Saint Mary's are ranked #59 in doubles, followed by San Diego's Dana Oppinger and Drew Spinosa at #87.
LOOKING FURTHER BACK: The Waves served up a 6-1 win at Loyola Marymount on April 9 to score 1.5 points in the Wells Fargo PCH Cup standings ... Pepperdine then celebrated Senior Day for Lorraine Guillermo vs. Portland on April 10 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.
WCC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Lorraine Guillermo has been voted WCC Singles Player of the Week three times (Feb. 24, March 3, March 17) ... Michaela Capannolo was the year's first player of the week honoree (Feb. 18) ... Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox have earned WCC Doubles Team of the Week honors twice (Feb. 24, March 17), while Guillermo and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai earned their first WCC Doubles Team of the Week nod on April 1.
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 ... Nilsson's recruiting efforts have already paid dividends, with January addition Laura Gulbe picking up WCC Freshman of the Year honors ... Coach Nilsson recently signed two standout recruits for next season, Luisa Stefani, ranked as high as #10 in the ITA Junior World rankings, and Dzina Milovanovic.
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.
