Waves crash down on Huskies

By Ben Miller

Feb 14, 2005, 12:00 AM

The Washington men's tennis team suffered its first loss of the season, falling to Pepperdine 4-3 Saturday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. "I am very disappointed with the loss, and I think that this is a match that we are capable of winning," UW coach Matt Anger said. "Their guys at the end played to win, and played pretty well." A strong performance in double play by the Wave gave them an early 1-0 match lead. Freshman Andy Kuharszky and sophomore Alex Slovic were the only Huskies to come out with a victory in doubles play, defeating Ivor Lovrak and Jonas Berg 8-5. Doubles has been an area of struggle all season. "The doubles point is without question my greatest disappointment in this match," Anger said. "Our play was well under par, and we expect more of ourselves; we're capable of more from ourselves in the doubles." In singles play, UW came out fast, sweeping three of the first four matches to take a 3-2-match lead. Sophomore Daniel Chu put the first point up on the board, besting Richard Johnson 6-2, 6-3. Seniors Alex Vlaski and Christoph Palmanshofer secured the next two points for the Huskies. Vlaski upended No. 13 Pedro Rico 6-4, 6-1, and No. 79 Palmanshofer beat Berg 6-4, 6-2. A single match win for Vlaski was not enough. "When I play out there, I play for my team; I don't play for myself," he said. "It's sad that we lost because we came so close; we should have won that doubles point, and that's what cost us today." Kuharszky and No. 9 Slovic were both swept in their singles matches to tie the score at 3-3. Scott Doerner upset Slovic 7-5, 6-3, while Kuharszky fell 6-4, 6-4 to Ivor Lovrak. The match came down to singles play between senior Husky Pete Scharler and Alexis Rafidison. Scharler lost the first set 7-5, but battled back in the second to force a final set against Rafidison. However, Rafidison proved to be too much in the final frame, defeating Scharler 6-1, winning the match for himself and the Wave. "We can't look at this as a loss and an end," Vlaski said. "We have to use it as an opportunity to learn from it. We still have the whole season ahead of us; it's just a bump in the road." Washington looks to bounce back Friday against Gonzaga in Seattle.

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