CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Vanderbilt’s Jeremie Casabon and Nathan Cox won the doubles title at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championship with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Memphis on Monday.
The No. 40 team in the nation, Casabon and Cox were seeded second in the tournament. Their straight-sets win in the title match came against fifth seeds Pablo Alemany and Charlie Barry of Memphis.
The doubles success caps a weekend that saw both Commodores also post several singles wins.
Ranked No. 119 in singles, Cox reached the quarterfinals with a run that included four straight three-set matches. Cox posted a 10-1 record between singles and doubles in the tournament that began Thursday.
Casabon recorded three singles victories to advance to the Round of 16 in addition to his 6-0 doubles performance.
As a team, the Commodores were collectively 14-7 in singles and 7-3 in doubles in championship draw matches during the event.
“I want to thank Chuck Merzbacher, the head coach at Chattanooga, and Andrew Rogers and their staff for running a wonderful event at the ITA Regionals. It was a well-organized, well-run event,” said head coach Scott Brown. “I want to applaud every member of the program who competed at regionals this week, they all did a great job taking care of the little details to enhance our culture. They are getting better at being comfortable being uncomfortable, they are all doing a great job helping to push this program forward inch by inch.
“I want to mention Connor Robb-Wilcox, who unfortunately was injured before this event and couldn’t compete. He still made the trip and wanted to be there to support his teammates and his brothers, he was there every day from when the first ball was struck until the last ball was hit. I can’t thank Connor enough for making that extra effort.”
“We’re super proud of Nathan and Jeremie, they made some adjustments to their game and they listen. Credit to them, they’ve put the work in on their games and their new identity on the doubles court; that was a victory in itself. To see that work be validated in a way with the results they had this weekend is the cherry on top. Every member of this team is a worker, I know they are going to continue pushing forward. We all have little things to continue to work and improve on—we’re going to keep doing that—but congratulations to Nathan and Jeremie, we’re looking forward to seeing them compete in San Diego in a few weeks.
Casabon and Cox have now qualified for the ITA National Fall Championship, which will be held Nov. 1-5 in San Diego. Vanderbilt’s next event is the Black & Gold Invitational, which the Commodores will host at the Lummis Family Tennis Center Oct. 27-29.
Monday Results
#40 Jeremie Casabon/Nathan Cox (Vanderbilt) def. Pablo Alemany/Charlie Barry (Memphis) 6-3, 6-4
Full draws and event results can be found on the tournament homepage: http://vanderbi.lt/w1k1h.
