EVANSTON, Ill. – Despite dropping the doubles point for just the second time all season, the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team was able to top Northwestern, 4-3, Friday evening at the Combe Tennis Center.
Charlie Jones and Alex Zotov, playing in the No. 1 doubles spot for the first time this season, dropped their match, 8-3, to Joshua Graves and Spencer Wolf. Ryan Lipman and Adam Baker evened things up with an 8-3 win over Andrew McCarty and Tobias Reitz in the No. 2 match.
The doubles point came down to the No. 3 match, where Alex DiValerio and Bryant Salcedo played Chris Jackman and Raleigh Smith to a tiebreak set, but ultimately fell, 9-8(7-3), for the Wildcats to claim the first point of the match.
Lipman evened the score in singles play with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Graves on court one. McCarthy regained the lead for Northwestern with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Salcedo in the No. 4 match, before Zotov evened things up once again. After dropping his first set, 4-6, Zotov defeated Smith, 6-4, 6-0, in the next two sets to win on court six.
In the No. 3 match, Baker fell to Sidarth Balaji in a three-set match, which gave Northwestern a 3-2 lead with two matches left to play. Blake Bazarnik evened things up with a three-set victory over Jackman on court five. After winning the first set, 7-5, Bazarnik fell 4-6 in the second, but claimed the match with a 6-4 win in the third set.
With the match tied 3-3, Charlie Jones and Spencer Wolf split the first two sets, 6-7, 6-3, and battled it out in the third set. Jones concluded the match with a 7-5 win in the third set to give the Commodores their fifth consecutive victory.
The Commodores return home next weekend to host Indiana and North Carolina at the Currey Tennis Center.
