NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 9 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team suffered a 5-2 setback Sunday afternoon at the hands of the seventh-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
While the Commodores came out to take a quick 2-0 lead, the Buckeyes mounted a comeback, which snapped Vandy’s home match win streak at 37-straight victories at the Currey Tennis Center.
“I salute Ohio State, they fought really hard,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “They’re a veteran team with four seniors, who all played today. They’re always good indoors and played great, but I’m also proud of our fight. It was a really tight match today and I told the team that we play a really hard schedule for a reason. There is no shame in this loss. We had set points on courts three, four and six. Had we won those set points, we’re maybe winning this match. But we didn’t, and that’s the nature of our tennis format. But today was a great college tennis match.”
In tandems, Vandy’s No. 1 doubles team, Astra Sharma and Emily Smith gave the squad the advantage with a 6-4 victory over the Buckeye’s Sandy Niehous and Anna Sanford.
Georgina Sellyn and Fernanda Contreras clinched what could have possibly turned out to be a paramount with a 6-3 win over Olivia Sneed and Ferny Angeles Paz.
With momentum on their side, No. 19 Sydney Campbell played inspired tennis, using her strong serve and shot selection to her advantage, giving Vandy the 2-0 edge. The senior only allowed her opponent, No. 41 Sanford, three games in her 6-2, 6-1 win on court three.
While the `Dores played resilient tennis, with Sellyn and Kurtz forcing paramount third sets, the team fell on courts one, four, five and then six.
In a Sunday showdown, court one was a matchup between the No. 1 ranked player in the country, Francesca Di Lorenzo and the `Dores second-ranked player, Astra Sharma. In a close match riddled with 40-40-deuce point after deuce point, the Buckeye took the victory on court one, 6-2, 6-2.
OSU tied the match at two-all as Sellyn fell in a three-setter on court four to Niehaus, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. The Buckeye’s played No. 59 Miho Kowase in the No. 5 slot, with the senior narrowly defeating freshman Kurtz, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 for the clinch. The final blow came at No. 6 singles where the `Dores fell again in another tight match. Ohio State’s senior, Paz, defeated Contreras, 7-5, 7-5.
Both the Commodores and Buckeyes have the potential of meeting once more as the two squads are attending National Team Indoors this upcoming weekend.
