OXFORD, Miss. – Vanderbilt’s second-ranked women’s tennis team bounced back from a loss at Mississippi State with a 4-2 win at No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon.
The Commodores dropped the doubles point to fall into an early hole. The team of Astra Sharma and Amanda Meyer dropped a 6-3 decision to Sabina Machalova and Tea Jandric to open the match. The Rebels followed up by clinching the point thanks to Natalie Suk and Anna Vrbenska topping Fernanda Contreras and Emily Smith 6-3. Emma Kurtz and Christina Rosca led No. 11 Arianne Hartono and Alexa Bortles 5-3 when the point was decided.
The Commodores quickly shook off the loss with No. 5 Contreras breezing by Machalova 6-1, 6-2 to even the match. But the Rebels regained the lead on court five when Vrbenska topped Kurtz 6-3, 6-4.
Vandy took over after going down 2-1, however, with No. 27 Rosca defeating Suk 7-5, 6-4 on court three to level the score again. No. 22 Sharma’s tight 7-5, 7-6(0) win over No. 13 Hartono on court one gave the Dores their first lead of the day.
No. 98 Meyer clinched the match for Vanderbilt with a hard-fought 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 victory on court four to wrap up a 1-1 trip to the state of Mississippi and push the Commodores’ overall record to 12-3 and 5-1 in the Southeastern Conference.
Vanderbilt returns home next weekend to host Tennessee on Friday at 4 p.m. and Georgia on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
