The #57 UCSB women’s tennis team lost against #32 Pepperdine on Sunday, 7-0. It was the team’s first road game this season and its first lost since Jan. 27 against Santa Clara. The Gauchos are now 5-2 as the Waves improve to 6-2 on the season.

Pepperdine won all three doubles matches, handing the #1 doubles team of juniors Natalia Lozano and Jordan Dockendorf an 8-6 loss — its first of the season.

“We weren’t necessarily expecting to win, but its definitely hard losing every match,” Dockendorf said. “They’re good, so we’re happy with how we played. A lot of the matches were really close.”

One particularly close match was in the second singles slot between junior Jill Damion and Pepperdine senior Anamika Bhargava. They split their two sets 3-6, 6-3, forcing a ten-point tiebreaker where Bhargava prevailed 12-10.  UCSB freshman Kiersten Meehen played a similar match in the sixth singles slot, splitting sets with Pepperdine junior Andrea Oates 4-6, 6-4 before losing the tiebreaker 10-3.

“Those definitely could have gone either way,” Dockendorf said.

In #1 singles, Lozano lost 7-5, 7-5 to Ariana Colffer, and Marie Zalameda defeated junior Sofia Novak 6-2, 6-0 in the #3 singles match. Junior Khunpak Issara defeated Dockendorf 6-2, 6-3 at #4 singles.  At #5, Pepperdine freshman Ale Granillo defeated freshman Paola Cos 6-1, 6-3.

“We know we could have played better in some areas,” Dockendorf said.

Saturday’s scheduled home match against #66 Cal Poly was postponed until March 3 due to inclement weather.

“I’m hoping that this match gave us the extra push that we needed,” Dockendorf said. “We’re happy we got this match in before Cal Poly because we haven’t played in two weeks. It should be a good match.”

UCSB hosts the Mustangs in their Big West opener on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. before taking on #46 Long Beach State on the road on March 5.