Women's Tennis Opens NCAA Action vs. Auburn on Friday
5/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
MALIBU, Calif. - The #19 Pepperdine women's tennis team opens the NCAA Tournament this week, facing #43-ranked Auburn in the first round on Friday at the Taube Tennis Center in Palo Alto, Calif. A win would send the Waves to the second round, where they'd face either #14 Stanford or Stony Brook on Saturday.
DUAL 24 - NCAA FIRST ROUND: #19 Pepperdine (17-6) vs. #43 Auburn (16-13) | Friday, May 8 | 11 a.m. | Palo Alto, Calif.
DUAL 25 - NCAA SECOND ROUND: #19 Pepperdine/#43 Auburn vs. #14 Stanford (15-5)/Stony Brook (15-1) | Saturday, May 9 | 1 p.m. | Palo Alto, Calif.
NCAA TOURNAMENT - The winner of Saturday's dual will advance to Waco, Texas, where the remainder of the team championships will play out on May 14-19 ... Baylor University will serve as host ... The NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships will follow on May 20-25 ... Lorraine Guillermo will represent the Waves in the singles bracket as a 9-16 seed ... As a top-16 seed, Guillermo has guaranteed herself ITA All-American honors in singles ... Christine Maddox and Matea Cutura earned the WCC automatic bid into the 32-team doubles draw ... The pair, currently ranked #23, will earn All-American honors by reaching the quarterfinals of the draw or by moving up to the top-10 in the final rankings.
COVERAGE: Live video and scores coverage will be provided by GoStanford.com ... Available updates can be followed on Twitter @PeppWTEN.
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.
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY -- Pepperdine is making its 32nd appearance at the NCAA Tournament ... The Waves have made the NCAA Tournament field the last 28 consecutive years, dating back to 1988 ... Pepperdine is 26-31 all-time at the NCAAs.
LOOKING BACK: The Waves stormed through the WCC Tournament with three 4-0 shutouts ... Pepperdine defeated San Diego, Saint Mary's and Portland in route to their 25th WCC Tournament championship.
OPPONENT NOTES: Auburn is 16-13 on the season, after reaching the second-round of the SEC Tournament ... The Tigers went just 3-10 in the powerful SEC conference ... Pleun Burgmans is ranked #71 for Auburn in singles and #8 in doubles along with Emily Flickinger ... Pepperdine has never faced Auburn ... First and second-round host Stanford is 15-5 overall, and 10-1 at home in 2015.
RANKINGS: Pepperdine is the top-ranked team in the WCC at #19 .. Lorraine Guillermo is by far the highest ranked singles player in the WCC at #9 ... Teammate Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai follows at #81 ... Matea Cutura and Christine Maddox are the top-ranked doubles team in the league at #23.
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.
