NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship Opens Wednesday
5/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. - Senior Lorraine Guillermo picks up the racquet for the last time as part of the Pepperdine women's tennis team this week, opening play at the NCAA Singles Championship on Wednesday. Teammates Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox begin their run at the NCAA Doubles Championship, held at Baylor University, on Thursday.
NCAA SINGLES DRAW - Round of 64: #9 Lorraine Guillermo vs. #58 Belinda Woolcock (Florida) | Wednesday, May 20 | 11:30 a.m. (PT) | Waco, Texas
NCAA DOUBLES DRAW - Round of 32: #23 Matea Cutura/Christine Maddox vs. #37 Alyssa Hibberd/Anki Wind (Memphis) | Thursday, May 21 | Time TBA| Waco, Texas
COVERAGE: Live video and scores coverage will be provided by BaylorBears.com ... The Championship Central page includes brackets, links to live coverage and more ... Available updates can be followed on Twitter @PeppWTEN.
PURPOSE: Lorraine Guillermo was honored as the national winner of the ITA/Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award, announced on Tuesday at the ITA Awards Luncheon ... She is the first player in program history to receive any national award from the ITA ... She was named the southwest regional winner of the sportsmanship award last week Tuesday and was the regional recipient of the ITA/Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award in 2014.
SINGLES NOTES: Lorraine Guillermo is ranked #9 and is 30-7 in singles play this season ... First-round opponent Belinda Woolcock of Florida is ranked #58 ... Woolcock is 27-10 in 2014-15 after leading the Gators to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship ... Woolcock, a sophomore found mostly at the No. 4 spot in the Florida lineup, is making her first appearance at the singles championship ... A win in the first round would pit Guillermo against either Leeza Nemchinov (William and Mary) or Sabrina Santamaria (USC) ... Top-seeded Robin Anderson (UCLA) would be a likely opponent in the round of 16 ... Guillermo is 2-2 all-time vs. Anderson.
DOUBLES NOTES: Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox enter the championships ranked #23 behind a 14-3 record ... The duo is 4-3 vs. ranked opponents, including one win over a top-15 pair ... First-round opponents #37 Alyssa Hibberd and Anki Wind of Memphis are 10-3 overall in 2015, including a 10-2 tally from the No. 1 spot in the dual lineup ... Hibberd and Wind are 1-1 vs. ranked opponents ... Second-round opponents could be either #18 Ashleigh Antal/Astra Sharma (Vanderbilt) or #3 Catherine Harrison/Kyle McPhillips (UCLA).
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: Lorraine Guillermo is the Waves' first top-16 seeded player since Ginger Helgeson was dubbed the No. 2 seed in 1990 ... Guillermo is just the seventh Pepperdine player to be seeded in the singles tournament overall ... The Waves have sent three different doubles pairs to the tournament the last four consecutive years ... Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox are making their debut at the NCAA Doubles Championship ... Guillermo is making her third-straight appearance in the singles bracket, and fourth overall after earning bid in doubles as a freshman.
POSTSEASON HONORS: Pepperdine swept all major 2015 All-West Coast Conference awards ... Lorraine Guillermo was voted the WCC Player of the Year ... Guillermo will also be an ITA All-American in singles for earning a top-16 seed at the NCAA Singles Championship ... Laura Gulbe took WCC Freshman of the Year honors ... Per Nilsson was crowned WCC 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 ... Maddox was an WCC All-Academic first-team pick, while Danielle Feneridis earned an honorable mention ... Gulbe, Runglerdkriangkrai and Maddox took WCC All-Tournament honors in singles, while Maddox/Cutura and Michaela Capannolo/Feneridis were WCC All-Tournament picks in doubles.
LOOKING BACK: The Waves opened the NCAA Championship with a 4-2 triumph over Auburn, before falling to Stanford in round two.
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.
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.
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