Jan. 18, 2018
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – For the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team, the 2018 dual match season has finally arrived. Vandy officially opens the season this Friday at 2 p.m. CT as the squad hosts Middle Tennessee on West End.
The Commodores are coming off a successful final individual tournament, as the team competed last weekend in the Longhorn Invitational. In tandems, Tate Allwardt and Maxwell Freeman went undefeated. Freshman George Harwell and senior Alex Ross left Austin, Texas with undefeated 3-0 singles records on the weekend. Baker Newman made his senior year debut, going 2-1 while picking up a ranked win.
Daniel Valent is the Commodores’ lone ranked singles player and owns a 12-4 record. The senior out of Zurich, Switzerland went on an 11-match win streak throughout the fall and won the 2017 ITA Division I Men’s Ohio Valley Regional Singles Championship last October.
All regular season tennis matches are held at the Currey Tennis Center with free admission. For match updates and a behind the scenes look at the 2018 squad, follow @VandyMensTennis on Twitter.
Duvenhage Dialogue:
“Tomorrow is exciting because we have everyone healthy and everyone ready to play,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “We had the fall, but a number of our players were out. So, it will be nice to see where we are in a match situation. At this point I feel great about how we’re looking in singles, but I’m still not sure what we’re going to bring in doubles. We’ve practiced some new combinations with Baker (Newman) and Cam (Klinger) back in the lineup, but not often enough to really know what we’re going to see… so tomorrow is going to tell us a lot.
A number of our guys played extremely well last weekend in Austin, but the results didn’t show it. Danny played probably the best tennis I’ve ever seen and the results didn’t reflect that, and that’s true for several other players on our team. “
Commodore Notables:
- The Dores open the season with a new assistant coach, VU alum Ryan Lipman
- Vanderbilt boast nine returnees, including the top four singles positions
- Cameron Klinger will return to the lineup following a season-ending injury in 2017
- Two freshmen joined the Commodore squad, Maxwell Freeman and Adam Sraberg
- Senior Daniel Valent is ranked 50th in the latest ITA singles poll
- Lachlan McPhee and Billy Rowe come in at No. 36 in the ITA’s latest doubles rankings
- The Commodores own a 29-10 series lead over Middle Tennessee and currently ride a 10-match win streak
Surveying the Blue Raiders:
- MT boasts a 2-0 record on the year, having swept Austin Peay and Chattanooga
- Last season MT went 12-14 overall, 6-4 at home and 3-8 away
- Tom Moonen was named Conference USA’s Player of the Week on Jan. 17
- Last season, the Commodores defeated MT 4-0
- The last time the Blue Raiders won in the Currey Tennis Center was 2006
Up Next:
Vanderbilt will host two matches this Sunday; Michigan State at noon and Lipscomb at 4 p.m. CT.
