Pepperdine Women Are Doubles Trouble

Paola Palencia and Ipek Senoglu of Pepperdine are ranked No. 1 in preseason in women’s doubles by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn.

The two advanced to the NCAA championships semifinals last year.

They are part of a nine-member team that features only one American-born player, senior Ahn Nguyen of Minnesota.

Palencia is a junior from Mexico and Senoglu is a senior from Turkey. The Waves have two players from Germany and one each from Hungary, Kenya, Argentina and France.

Even the coaches are from foreign countries.

Coach Gualberto Escudero, in his 23rd season with the Waves, was born in Bolivia but grew up in Hollywood. His assistant, Nina Eriksson, a former player at Pepperdine, is from Sweden.

The men’s team has two Americans and one player each from Belgium, Monaco, Switzerland and Germany.

Good thing they don’t have to play all those national anthems before matches.

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All those foreign players at Pepperdine is nothing new in U.S. colleges.

Forty-nine of the top 100 women in the ITA’s preseason singles rankings are from foreign countries.

Among the men, 64 of the top 100 players are from foreign countries.

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Players and coaches from Valley College’s 1975 football team, which finished 10-1 after defeating Fresno in the Potato Bowl, are holding a reunion.

The group has a golf outing planned for Friday, followed by a dinner. They are attending the Michigan-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday and later the Grossmont-Valley game at Valley.

For information, contact Jay Fisher at (805) 529-9406.