April 11, 2008

Pepperdine, Calif. - The No. 60 UC Santa Barbara men's tennis team suffered a 6-1 setback at No. 13 Pepperdine Thursday at the Ralphs-Straus Tennis Center. The Waves, powered by No. 6 singles Omar Altmann, extended their home-court winning streak to 11 matches.

Pepperdine got off to a commanding start, sweeping all three doubles matches as the tandems of Andre Begemann and Omar Altmann, Rickus de Villiers and Bassam Beidas, and Mahmoud Kamel and Brian Brogan recorded victories to give the Waves the doubles point.

In singles, the Waves continued to roll as they registered five victories in singles competition. Beidas, ranked No. 22 in the nation, defeated junior Bijan Hejazi at the No. 2 position, 6-1, 4-0, to secure the first singles point for Pepperdine. Waves' Moreno quickly followed suite, dispatching UCSB team captain Josh Finkelstein 6-1, 6-3.

Two other Gauchos fell in straight sets including Jack Hui, whose six match winning streak finally came to an end when Omar Altmann of Pepperdine handed him a 6-4, 7-5 loss. The Waves' final point came at the No. 1 spot where No. 6 Andre Begemann nipped sophomore Philip Therp. After losing the first set 6-1, Therp came roaring back claiming the second set 4-6. The third set went 6-6 and a tie breaker, but Begemann outlasted Therp to win 7-6 (4).

The lone victory for the Gauchos came at the No. 5 slot where Max Taylor defeated Brian Brogan 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

With the loss, the Gauchos fell to 11-7 overall while the Waves improved to 14-6 on the season.

The Gauchos will continue their late season road trip, traveling to Utah on April 18 at 1:30 PT and then play BYU on the following day.

Doubles
1. Altmann/ Begemann (PEP) def. Hui/Therp (UCSB) 8-2
2. de Villiers/Beidas (PEP) def. Konigsfeldt/ Finklestein (UCSB) 8-4
3. Kamel/ Brogan (PEP) def. Barton/ Chavez Goggin (UCSB) 8-5

Singles
1. #6 Andre Begemann (PEP) def. Philip Therp (UCSB) 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4)
2. #22 Bassam Beidas (PEP) def. Bijan Hejazi (UCSB) 6-1, 4-0, retired
3. Omar Altmann (PEP) def. Jack Hui (UCSB) 6-4, 7-5
4. Mahmoud Kamel (PEP) def. Alexander Konigsfeldt (UCSB) 6-4, 6-4
5. Max Taylor (UCSB) def. Brian Brogan (PEP) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
6. Alejandro Moreno (PEP) def. Josh Finklestein (UCSB) 6-1, 6-3