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11/8/2005 Peachtree City, Ga. — The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team went down to Georgia last weekend to compete in the Southeastern Conference Fall Coaches Classic. Head coach Geoff Macdonald’s team took away a doubles flight championship a third place finish, and a consolation bracket title despite playing only five players in singles and two doubles pairs. Sophomore Caroline Ferrell (Blythewood, S.C.) and freshman Courtney Ullery (Wellington, Fla.) continued their excellent doubles play from throughout the Fall season to claim the Ladies B Doubles Flight crown with a 9-7 victory over Tori Almagno and Whitney Chappell of Auburn. The pair, which had a bye in the first round, defeated an Ole Miss squad 8-4 and a team from Arkansas 8-5 to advance to the finals. Those same two Commodores also reached the semifinals in the Ladies B Singles Bracket, and Ulery even made it to the finals before falling to Florida’s Lolita Frangulyan 6-4, 6-1. Ferrell dropped her semifinal round to Frangulyan, but she claimed third- place when Ksenia Tokarieva of Ole Miss — Ulery’s semifinal opponent — withdrew. In the first round, Tokarieva bested freshman Maggie Yahner (Las Vegas, Nev.) 6-4, 6-2, moving Yahner to the consolation bracket, but she was forced to withdraw with injury in the semifinals. Also in singles, sophomore Taka Bertrand (Great Falls, Va.), who was the No. 41-ranked player in the preseason national rankings, behind junior Amanda Fish (Scituate, Mass.) at No. 17, was the top seed in the Ladies A Singles Draw and she showed she could play with the best in the league running off a 3-1 record to finish in third place. Bertrand bounced back from a disappointing third-set loss to South Carolina’s Natasa Vuckovic in the semifinals to defeat Florida’s Whitney Benik 6-0, 6-0 in the third-place consolation match. Freshman Liberty Sveke (Sarasota, Fla.) also showed the ability to bounce back, after she lost her first-round match to Rachel Wilheim of Arkansas, she won her next three matches to claim the consolation title of the Ladies C Singles. |
