No. 21 Vanderbilt Commodores
at
No. 26 Ole Miss Rebels / No. 41 Mississippi State Bulldogs
UM: April 8 • 2 p.m. CT | MSU: April 10 • 1 p.m. CT
Closing It Out
- With one weekend of competition left before the SEC Tournament, No. 21 Vanderbilt will visit No. 26 Ole Miss on Thursday at 2 p.m. before closing the regular season with a visit to No. 41 Mississippi State on Saturday at 1 p.m.
- Fans can follow the match via live stream, live scoring or on Twitter by following @VandyWTennis.
National Rankings
- This week in the Oracle/ITA national rankings, Vanderbilt checked in at No. 21 in the nation.
- The Commodores also checked in at No. 25 in this week’s release of the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25.
- In addition to the team ranking, fifth-year senior Christina Rosca stands at No. 49 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. 34 in the nation while she and Marcella Cruz are No. 58 in the country.
- Staff and Anna Ross also jumped into the poll and ranks No. 54 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 111-53 singles record while going 12-5 thus far this spring season.
- With her 111 singles wins, she ranks fifth in program history for most in a career and is one away from tying Francis Altick (2012-16) for fourth most.
- Combining singles and doubles, Rosca is 209-115 in her career as a Commodore thanks to her 98-62 record in doubles play.
Century Mark
- Kurtz reached 100 career doubles victories by beating Tennessee’s No. 2 duo with Cruz.
- The fifth-year senior holds a career mark of 181-125 across 306 career singles and doubles decisions in black and gold.
Looking Astern
- Out on the road in SEC play, the Commodores dropped a 4-1 decision at No. 29 South Carolina on Thursday before closing the weekend with a 4-2 loss to No. 15 Florida.
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 248 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
- Turning its attention to the SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt and the rest of the SEC will converge on Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the 2021 edition of the championship. Action is set to start on April 19. Vanderbilt’s opponent, seed and time are still to be determined.
- As information about the tournament is available, updates will be posted to social media and VUCommodores.com.
