Waves’ national title win
The championship is Pepperdine’s first in men’s tennis. But the doubles tournament ends just shy of another championship for the Waves, as Scott Doerner and Andre Begemann lose in the final match.
By Jonathan Friedman
Assistant Editor
Avenging one of its two losses from earlier in the season, the Pepperdine University men’s tennis team defeated the University of Georgia, 4-2, last Tuesday in Palo Alto to win the team’s first national championship.
“They played their guts out and fought for every point,” head coach Adam Steinberg said. “They really deserved to be champions. They should be really proud of not just winning but how they did it, who they beat.”
Pepperdine (36-2) clinched the victory over previously unbeaten Georgia when sophomore Andre Begemann completed his come-from-behind win against the Bulldogs’ Matic Omerzel at the No. 4 position. Begemann had lost the first set, 6-2, and was behind in the second set, 2-4.
“I was frustrated,” Begemann said. “I asked my [assistant] coach [Per Nilsson], ‘What can I do?’ He said to try to stay in it and keep positive energy. So I tried to attack and break his rhythm.”
Begemann then began his comeback and won the final two sets, 7-6, 6-4. After he got the final point, Begemann dropped to his knees in celebration as his teammates ran onto the court to join him.
“I was so happy,” Begemann said. “There were tears in my eyes.”
The victory was extra special for Pepperdine’s top three players, Scott Doerner, Pedro Rico and Ivor Lovrak, all seniors who ended their college careers on top.
“We went through a rebuilding phase the first two years,” Doerner said. “And this year we felt like we could really do it [win a national title]. From a senior point of view, everything we put into the program came out when we won. We believed in what we were doing. It was just amazing, so much pride; we were just overjoyed.”
The match opened with victories by Pepperdine’s doubles teams of Begemann and Doerner (9-7 over Georgia’s John Isner and Antonio Ruiz) and Lovrak and Rico (8-5 over Georgia’s Luis Flores and Matic Omerzel). The wins gave the Waves the doubles point and a 1-0 lead.
Pepperdine extended its lead to 3-0 with freshman Omar Altmann’s win over Ricardo Gonzalez (7-5, 6-1) at the sixth spot and Lovrak’s win over Ruiz (1-6, 6-1, 6-4) at the No. 3 position.
Georgia got back into the match with victories by Isner over Doerner (7-6, 6-4) at the first position and Colin Purcell’s win over Richard Johnson (7-5, 7-6) at the fifth spot. But cutting the Waves’ lead to 3-2 was as close as it would get, as Begemann clinched the national title in the next match.
Lovrak was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Performer. Perfect in the NCAA tournament at the No. 3 position, he lost in that role only once all season. Begemann called Lovrak a phenomenal player.
“He’s so relaxed,” Begemann said. “He’s so cool on the court. He wants it. He plays with heart.”
Pepperdine did not have an easy road to the national championship, although it appeared to be one based on the Waves’ handling of the competition. After defeating Montana State University and Texas Christian University in the early rounds, Pepperdine traveled to Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium for the remainder of the NCAA tournament. The school’s first match was against a tough University of Florida team, who they beat 4-0. This was followed by a match with local rival and defending national champion UCLA, who the Waves shut down, 4-1.
In the semifinal, Pepperdine faced the University of Texas, who had beaten the Waves, 5-2, in April. But the Longhorns were no competition for Pepperdine in the rematch, as the Waves beat them, 4-1.
After the Texas win, the Wave players gathered to watch Georgia take on Baylor University in the other semifinal match.
“We sort of wanted Georgia to win because we wanted to avenge their beating us [earlier in the season] and to play the top team,” Doerner said. “We wanted to play them to really prove we were the best in the nation.”
Steinberg said talk of a national championship began last year after the Waves lost to Baylor in the national quarterfinals. The team was disappointed with that result, but encouraged by the fact that its top three players would be returning.
Pepperdine looked like a team headed for something great as it began the season 13-0. The Waves had their first taste of defeat Feb. 20 against Georgia in the final match at the National Men’s Team Indoor Championships in Seattle.
Pepperdine would not lose again until April 14 when it fell to Texas.
“As we kept winning, our confidence just grew and grew,” Steinberg said. “It affected everybody. The winning helped so much. You start beating teams like UCLA, Virginia, Ole Miss and Duke, you get the feeling that you can beat anybody.”
Steinberg came to Pepperdine following the 2002 season because, he said, it was a place where he believed he could recruit a caliber of talent capable of winning the national title. But he said this championship came much earlier than he thought it would.
“It was a dream come true,” Steinberg said. “I just was thinking about everything [when the team won], my dad who had passed away, how I started at Pepperdine, just everything went through my head. It was the best feeling that I ever had.”
Pepperdine nearly had two national championships to celebrate. Begemann and Doerner competed in the doubles tournament that followed the team competition, and reached the final match on Monday.
But the duo’s magnificent run came one victory short, as the two lost 6-2, 6-4 to Illinois University’s Ryan Rowe and Kevin Anderson.