COLUMBIA, S.C. — Vanderbilt men’s tennis battled for more than four hours Wednesday until Matic Kriznik closed out a three-set victory to lift 12th-seeded Alabama to a 4-3 victory over the No. 13 seed Commodores in the first round of the SEC Tournament at the Carolina Tennis Center.
Michael Ross, playing in his final match for the Dores, fell in a tiebreaker in the opening set against Kriznik before rebounding and forcing a third set on Court 4. Kriznik ultimately broke early in the final set to help Crimson Tide (15-11) advance to Thursday’s second round.
Alabama also recorded their third point with a three-set victory from Damien Nezar on Court 5 while Enzo Aguiard gave the Crimson Tide a 2-1 advantage after winning a second-set tiebreaker to claim his match on the third court. Hugo Coquelin provided the Dores (12-14) with their second point with a victory in two sets on Court 6, and Pablo Martinez Gomez evened the score again, 3-3, after he was victorious in a second-set tiebreaker on the second court.
“There really wasn’t much separating the two teams,” head coach Scott Brown said. “We played a good, solid, competitive doubles point. When you look at the scoreline, every first set we lost the second set was closer or we won. That’s just the character of this team. We didn’t play anywhere near our best today. At this stage of the season and in those moments with high pressure, I’ve never had a team play at their best so I wasn’t expecting that. It’s hard to say what the difference was, Alabama just played that one percent better when it mattered. They made a few more balls, that’s tennis.”
Vandy earned the doubles point, which came down to a tiebreaker on the third court, to take an early lead. Danil Panarin and Martinez Gomez won their first five games on the way to a victory on Court 2, with Vandy going ahead 1-0 after Henry Ruger and Dylan Charlap earned the last six points of their tiebreaker against Zach Foster and Aguiard.
It was the eighth time this season that the Commodores’ had a dual match come down to the decisive point, with four of those occurring in the last month.
“I just finished my 13th season coaching college tennis, this is one of the most enjoyable groups of young men I have had the privilege of coaching,” said Brown. “The reason why we had a chance to make NCAAs—we were ranked No. 43 with a chance to get to .500—is because of the character of this group. We had a rough stretch in March and the first week of April where we lost a lot of 4-3 matches, that was our story in SEC play. To win our last four matches coming into the SEC Tournament, upsetting Oklahoma at the end, a team like this would not have done that if it wasn’t for the players buying into the culture, continuing to push and work and be blue collar, and to improve and work on their games and be uncomfortable. That’s why we had a chance at the end and why we almost beat Alabama today.
“These guys love each other, they are a super group to be around. We could’ve been in a much worse situation with the stretch we had the first few weeks of the SEC season. I can tell you so many teams would’ve thrown in the towel, not shown up to practice with enthusiasm and continued to work and improve. That’s not what the identity and culture of Vanderbilt men’s tennis is, we’re going to fight to the end; that’s a life skill set that I want them to bring back next year or if they graduate to take with them the rest of their life.
“We leave Columbia, South Carolina, with our heads held high because we know we left it all out there the entire season the last four and a half months. It’s been an honor to coach them, in that way it has been a successful season.”
No. 38 Alabama 4, No. 43 Vanderbilt 3
Doubles
1. #22 Nezar/Andrii Zimnokh (Alabama) def. #35 Nathan Cox/Ross 6-4
2. Panarin/Martinez Gomez (Vanderbilt) def. Roan Jones/Kriznik 6-1
3. Ruger/Charlap (Vanderbilt) def. Foster/Aguiard 7-6 (2)
Singles
1. #79 Jones (Alabama) def. #88 Panarin 6-3, 6-4
2. Martinez Gomez (Vanderbilt) def. Zimnokh 6-2, 7-6 (5)
3. Aguiard (Alabama) def. Cox 6-3, 7-6 (5)
4. Kriznik (Alabama) def. Ross 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-2
5. Nezar (Alabama) def. Ruger 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
6. Coquelin (Vanderbilt) vs. Carlos Gimenez Perez 6-4, 6-4
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (1,3,6,5,2,4)
