Steffen Deetjen
Staff Writer

This past Friday the Dons team took on Pepperdine at the Olympic Club and Loyola Marymount University on Saturday at the Cal Club. At the Olympic Club match, the Dons fell short to Pepperdine with a final outcome of 2-4. 

The Dons finished their doubles play with two match losses and one match win. Despite this outcome for the Dons’ doubles teams, players Christian Brockstedt and James Tallman played exceptionally well in their match against opponents Tom Hill and Pedro Iamachkine settling the match with a dominating score of 6-1. In singles play, the Dons won two matches out of six. For the first win in singles, player James Tallman closed out his match against Rakshay Thakkar strongly, leaving no chance for Thakkar in two sets 6-0, 6-2. Tallman’s overall record this season is 9-2. The second match win came from player Nils Skajaa who played an intense match against opponent Stefan Menichella. Skajaa took the first set easily from Menichella with a set score of 6-3. Menichella came back in the second set with a win, but was then shut down by Skajaa with a final set score of 6-2.

Following Friday’s play, the Dons continued their WCC play on Saturday against Marymount. The Dons finished off their week strong by beating LMU with an overall score of 4-2. The Dons accomplished this feat by competing well in their singles play. First to score a point in singles for the Dons was Senior Bernardo Saravia winning his match against LMU’s top singles player Charles Boyce with a victory of 6-0, 6-4. Skajaa was up next in the winning streak for singles play beating his opponent Errol Smith 6-4, 6-4. James Tallman and Thomas Takemoto followed suit and sealed the win for USF. Continuing the WCC competition on April 11, the Dons will take on Saint Mary’s.

Photo Credits: Dons Athletics