DALLAS – The No. 17 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team made a valiant effort but came up just short, falling to Southern Methodist University 4-3 in its first dual match of the season.
“Congrats to SMU, they fought hard and played well today,” said coach Aleke Tsoubanos, “They pulled out three, 3-set matches and played a more aggressive doubles point than we did, so credit to them. It’s not often both teams have match points to win the overall dual, this was going to be a heartbreaker for somebody and unfortunately, we found ourselves on the wrong side of it today. We will have to turn the page and put in a good week of practice to prepare for another test against Tennessee on Friday in the ITA Kickoff.”
Bridget Stammel and Valeria Ray won their doubles match but the Dores dropped the other two, so they headed into singles needing to win four lines. They began to right the ship when Sonya Macavei won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 6 singles, Anessa Lee won in straight sets and Holly Staff won the first set on line five.
Célia-Belle Mohr stormed back after dropping the first set in a tiebreak to win the second set at love and take the third, putting Vandy just one match away from victory. Stammel recovered from the first set loss to take the second and forced a third set. But the Mustangs won on line five and held on to win a third-set tiebreak 9-7 to seal the victory at home, where they lost just one dual match last season.
Singles
1. #14 Mohr def. Taylor Johnson (SMU) 6-7, 6-0, 6-3
2. Drew Morris (SMU) def. #24 Stammel 7-5, 4-6, 7-6
3. Hadley Doyle (SMU) def. #75 Ray vs. 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
4. Lee def. Lana Mavor (SMU) 6-1, 6-4
5. Maja Makoric (SMU) def. #95 Holly Staff 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
6. Macavei def. Caroline McGinley (SMU) 6-0, 6-2
Doubles
1. Johnson/Mavor (SMU) def. #17 Mohr/Lee 6-4
2. Morris/Makoric (SMU) def. Staff/Amy Stevens 6-4
3. Stammel/Ray def. McGinley/Millie Skelton (SMU) 6-2
On Deck: The Commodores travel to Knoxville next Friday and Saturday for ITA Kickoff Weekend, where they will take on Tennessee at 3 p.m. on Friday and either Miami (Fla.) or USC or Saturday.
