NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 26 Commodores came out victorious in a 4-3 thriller over the No. 48 Michigan Wolverines. With the win the Commodores improve to a 7-2 overall.
For the fifth time this season the match was tied at 3-all and came down to the number six singles position. For the third time this year and second time this weekend senior Suresh Eswaran pulled out the win for Vanderbilt. Eswaran crushed the first set in a 6-0, but Davis Crocker battled back and with resilience defeated Eswaran in the second set 7-6(5).
With a loud and rowdy crowd cheering the veteran on, Eswaran defeated Crocker in the third set, 6-4.
“I’ve been part of matches like this where we’ve got the momentum going in our way and suddenly they change that,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage “and those matches are hard to win. Now this change of momentum is a tough thing to handle emotionally, because they’ve got the momentum now on their side. They [Michigan] knew that they were so far behind that they had nothing to lose. I thought Suresh [Eswaran] did a great job at staying calm. This was not one of the best matches he’s played. He really didn’t play that well, but he competed well. We’ve been stressing over and over again to our guys that just because you’re not hitting the ball well that doesn’t mean that you can’t compete well, and he epitomized that out there today.”
For only the second time this season the Commodores dropped the doubles point, falling on courts two and three. Despite the 6-4 loss, Ryan Smith and Baker Newman put up a solid effort on court two, winning several impressive points. At number three doubles, the pairing of Suresh Eswaran and Daniel Valent fell to U-M’s Croker/Gardiner; 6-3.
With the doubles point in the Wolverin’e possession, the Commodores now had to earn four wins in singles to take the match.
Kris Yee tied the score up at one-all in singles, breaking a four-match losing streak with his victory over No. 100 Alex Knight; 6-1, 6-3.
Freshman Daniel Valent won his 11th straight match, defeating the Wolverine’s Runhau Hua, a freshman who was ranked No. 2 in his age division in China; 7-5, 6-3.
Gonzales Austin secured his seventh win in a row with his 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Alex Petrone. Austin’s win gave the Commdores a convincing 3-1 lead.
It looked as though Vanderbilt was on its way to victory, collecting three straight wins in singles and on its way to a fourth when Carter Lin came back from a 5-1 deficit in the third set, taking the match over Newman; 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
“It was the second match in a row that we lost the doubles point, and we put ourselves back in that whole. Then we came out like we’ve done all year, doing pretty well in first sets, but we’ve struggled a bit to close people out. Kris [Yee] and Danny [Valent] did a great job at getting off the court in straight sets. I thought we had them on the ropes and to Michigan’s credit they would not go away, they just kept hanging in there. Some of our younger guys… in junior tennis when you get on top of somebody they kind of go away; in college if you get the edge they fight even harder. We’ve got to learn that when we’ve got somebody against the ropes we’ve got to put them away. ”
The Commodores continue their home stint, taking on MTSU this Friday, Feb. 6 at 2 p.m..
Results
Vanderbilt 4, Michigan 3DoublesFinish: 3, 21) No. 5 Gonzales Austin/Rhys Johnson (VU) trailed Alex Petrone/Michael Zhu (UM); 5-6 DNF2) Alex Knight/Runhao Hua (UM) def. Ryan Smith/Baker Newman (VU); 6-43) Davis Croker/Tyler Gardiner (UM) def. Suresh Eswaran/Daniel Valent (VU); 6-3Singles
Finish: 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6
1)No. 10 Gonzales Austin (VU) def. Alex Petrone (UM); 4-6, 6-2, 6-12) Michael Zhu (UM) def. Rhys Johnson (VU); 7-6(3), 6-43) Kris Yee (VU) def. No. 100 Alex Knight (UM); 6-1, 6-34) Daniel Valent (VU) def. Runhao Hua (UM); 7-5, 6-35) Carter Lin (UM) def. Baker Newman (VU); 3-6, 6-2, 7-56 Suresh Eswaran (VU) def. Davis Crocker (UM); 6-0, 6-7(5), 6-4.
