Bertrand Wins Flight as June Stewart Concludes

Bertrand Wins Flight as June Stewart Concludes

10/23/2005

Nashville – Vanderbilt sophomore Taka Bertrand (Great Falls, Va.) outlasted a tough comeback effort by Arizona State’s Kady Pooler to win the Marshall Summar Singles Draw at the June Stewart Fall Invitational. After falling behind 4-1 in the first set, Pooler scraped her way back in to force a tie-breaker. Bertrand hung tough however, and won the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the set. She then used that momentum to put her opponent away and win the match 7-6 (5), 6-1.

Two flights did not have title matches as the four parcipants were all ASU teammates. However, Roxanne Clarke, competing in the Tom Boysen Draw, pulled out a flight championship for the Sundevils when she defeated Preethi Subramanian of Ole Miss, 6-7, 7-5, 6-2.

While Bertrand was the only Commodore contending for a flight title, she was not the only one performing on the court today. Sophomore Caroline Ferrell (Blythewood, S.C.) dropped her first set, but clawed her way back against ASU’s Rebecca Rankin to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the last match of the day – one that had to be concluded indoors as a light rain began to fall.

Freshman Maggie Yahner (Las Vegas, Nev.) also won her final match of the weekend by defeating a Sundevil. Yahner dismissed ASU’s Sabrina Caponnola 6-3, 6-2.Freshman Courtney Ulery (Wellington, Fla.), the other VU player with a match today, fell in consolaition bracket finals of the Summar Draw to Richmond’s Pamela Duran, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

The day began with doubles matches outdoors where the Commodores faced two teams from SEC opponent Ole Miss and a third pair from Richmond. Junior Amanda Fish (Scituate, Mass.) and Bertrand fell behind 0-3 for the second straight day, but were unable to pull off another comeback, falling just short, 8-6, to Ksenia Tokarieva and Nika Koukhartchouk of Ole Miss. Ferrell and Ulery made short work of the other Rebel team, defeating Merry Ellen Henry and Subramanian 8-4. Yahner and freshman partner Liberty Sveke (Sarasota, Fla.) also won 8-4, over Richmond’s Xenia Schneider and Ashley Vosters.

For the weekend, VU went 18-8 including 9-3 in doubles matches. ASU had the most sucessful tournament going 26-8 over three days and had six flight finalists out of a possible eight. The Commodores will now have some time off before the SEC Coaches Classic in Peachtree City, Ga. begins Nov. 3.