GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Saturday afternoon the No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team suffered their second setback in SEC play, falling to the 18th-ranked Florida Gators; 4-2. With the loss Vanderbilt owns an 8-4 record as they now prepare for Texas A&M on Thursday and LSU on Saturday.
“Obviously we didn’t play out best match against South Carolina on Thursday,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald, “but that’s water under the bridge for us now. “But we had chances today, we fell in doubles, but I felt that we competed really well in singles, Florida played a great match.”
Vanderbilt lost the paramount doubles point for the seventh time this season. Losing the point on courts one and three erased the cushion the Commodores desired as the squad faced the Gator’s strong singles lineup.
Florida took 2-0 lead as No. 67 Anna Danilina defeated Elle Yates at No. 6 singles. VU responded with a win of its own as Astra Sharma took an Aussie vs. Aussie competition on court two. Sharma dominated No. 5 in the nation, Belinda Woolcock, 6-2, 6-3, extending her streak against the Gators to 4-0.
Georgina Sellyn fought hard for Vandy in her first set on five against No. 121 Brianna Morgan, but the Gator took the match over the redshirt junior; 6-4, 6-1.
With the match sitting at 3-1 in Florida’s favor, Frances Altick earned her 95th career win for the Commodores with an easy 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 33 Kourtney Keegan.
Freshman Fernanda Contreras held her own on court five against No. 108 Josie Kuhlman. Kuhlman, who played No. 2 for UF last season, barely edged Contreras out of the first set. 7-5. At 5-0 in the second set, with Sydney Campbell splitting on court two, the match came down to the young Commodore. Contreras saved two match points, but fell 7-5, 6-2, as Florida clinched the victory over VU.
“The silver lining of losing is that we’re learning – ‘hey, this is important’, ‘hey, you can’t do this on this ball, you have to do this’. I was encouraged by the spirit of the team, it’s a good group. We’re going to be a lot better coming into this next weekend and it was touch overall, but we’re encouraged. We faced a very good rival, a very good opponent in Florida.”
