A Run at the Title

No. 22 Commodores open 2021 SEC title run against No. 27 South Carolina

No. 22 Vanderbilt Commodores
vs.
No. 27 South Carolina Gamecocks

April 20 • 3 p.m. CT

A Run at the Title

  • Opening a run at the SEC Tournament title, No. 22 Vanderbilt will start its journey through the tournament on Tuesday afternoon with a 3 p.m. CT match against No. 27 and seventh-seeded South Carolina in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
  • Fans can follow the match via live stream, live scoring or on Twitter by following @VandyWTennis.

National Rankings

  • In the most recent Oracle/ITA national rankings, Vanderbilt checked in at No. 22 in the nation.
  • In addition to the team ranking, fifth-year senior Christina Rosca stands at No. 30 in the country in the ITA singles rankings.
  • In the ITA doubles poll, Emma Kurtz is ranked with a pair of partners. She and Holly Staff checked in at No. 21 in the nation while she and Marcella Cruz are No. 66 in the country.
  • Staff and Anna Ross also jumped into the poll and ranks No. 48 in the nation.

Elite Ranks

  • With a three-set victory Jan. 17 against Western Kentucky, Rosca earned her 100th career singles victory.
  • In addition to her 100th singles win, she also earned her 200th career win across singles and doubles Feb. 22 against LSU.
  • To date throughout her career, she owns an overall 112-53 singles record while going 13-5 thus far this spring season.
  • With her 112 singles wins, she ranks fourth in program history for most in a career.
  • Combining singles and doubles, Rosca is 211-116 in her career as a Commodore thanks to her 99-63 record in doubles play.

Century Mark

  • Kurtz reached 100 career doubles victories by beating Tennessee’s No. 2 duo with Cruz last month.
  • The fifth-year senior holds a career mark of 182-127 across 309 career singles and doubles decisions in black and gold.

Looking Astern

  • Closing out the regular season, Vanderbilt completed a 4-0 sweep of No. 41 Mississippi State on April 10 to end a six-match skid.

A New Captain

  • Last summer, Aleke Tsoubanos took over as the program’s head coach after 13 seasons on staff as an assistant coach.
  • With Tsoubanos taking over, Geoff Macdonald remains on staff as the program’s assistant coach.
  • One of the most-respected college coaching duos in the country, Tsoubanos and Macdonald led the Commodores to the program’s first national championship in 2015. The pair has also ushered the Dores to 249 wins, 12 NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back SEC Tournament and regular-season titles in 2017-18.
  • Tsoubanos’s first dual-match victory came Jan. 17 in a 7-0 sweep of Western Kentucky and her first win over a ranked opponent came when the Dores beat N0. 9 Georgia Tech on the road Feb. 12.

Badges of Honor

  • Staff earned the first SEC Freshman of the Week honor on Jan. 28.
  • Cruz then went on to earn SEC Newcomer of the Week on March 17 after starting Vanderbilt’s comeback to beat No. 31 Kentucky 4-3.

A Look Back at 2019-20

  • Last season, Vanderbilt went 7-3 across 10 matches with a 3-1 mark in conference play before the remainder of the year was canceled due to COVID-19. Two of those losses were by 4-3 scorelines against Arizona State and No. 36 LSU.
  • Rosca won each of her last five matches of the season, finishing the spring campaign with an 8-2 record and a 6-1 mark at No. 1 singles.
  • Cruz also had a strong debut season, going 5-1 on the year – all at No. 5 singles – before the shutdown.

On The Radar

  • With a win, Vanderbilt would move on to face No. 2 seed Florida on Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT.