Nashville, Tenn. – In font of a packed house on the outdoor courts of the Vanderbilt Currey Tennis Center, the Commodores earned their first ever conference victory over the 14th ranked Texas A&M Aggies; 6-1.
Thursday’s match was not only a historic win for the Dores, but for SEC women’s tennis as it was the first-ever collegiate women’s tennis match broadcasted by the SEC Network on SEC Network+. Commodore fans around the world took part in VU’s victory from Glasgow to Perth and back to the Music City.
“I think everyone was just so excited before the match,” said Georgina Sellyn. “My family in Scotland watched it! I called my Gran yesterday and told her that she’d be able to watch the match. So my cousins went over to her house and helped set it up online so they could all watch. She was watching and texting my mom at the same time. It was so nice to have friends and family that cant be here, tune in and watch our matches.”
Vanderbilt switched up doubles pairings in hopes of securing the point advantage, but the Aggies got off to a quick start as Gonzalez/Deheza took court three over Fernanda Contreras and Ellie Yates, 6-0.
However the next two matches were extremely competitive, with both courts heading to tiebreakers. On court one Courtney Colton and Astra Sharma pulled out the upset over No. 41 Pierson/Paalma 7-6(5) to even doubles play at 1-all. Texas A&M clinched the point advantage with No. 56 Mamalat/Bhosale winning a 7-6(5) tiebreaker of their own over Sydney Campbell and Frances Altick.
With the point awarded to the Aggies, Vanderbilt rebounded quickly in singles play. The Commodores secured four first sets, in route to a singles sweep.
“That’s a very talented and dangerous A&M team,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “They’ve had our number the last few years. I was impressed by the way we played singles. I feel as through we’re going to be very good; it’s just going to take some time. And I thought today was a step in the right direction for everyone. Everyone got better in the match, and that’s stuff you can’t practice. I feel really good as a coach that we improved throughout the match.”
No. 24 Campbell made short work of Rutuja Bhosale, earning her second SEC victory of the year 6-2, 6-0 on court two.
Contreras continues to have a successful freshman campaign and overpowered Eva Paalma on court six in a commanding 6-1, 6-1 victory. No. 33 Sharma was challenged on court one, but still managed to defeat the Aggie’s 40th-ranked Saska Gavrilovska in just two sets with a final score of 6-4, 6-3.
No. 16 Altick continues relentless tennis, extending her undefeated dual streak to nine matches. The senior’s victory came in a clinch on court three, taking down Rachel Pierson 7-6, 6-2. With the match clinched, courts four and five were played out.
“In the beginning I was just getting outhit,” said Altick, “it was close, we were on serve… but she was dominating the points and I was only winning points on her errors. So when I was down three set points and serving at 5-6, I decided to go for the ball more and going for a little bit more, and moving her more and hitting the ball deeper. That worked and I was able to defend more.”
On court five, Sellyn battled back from a 6-2 first set deficit to earn VU its fifth victory of the night, defeating Ines Deheza 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. Senior Colton finished off the match on court four by defeating Gonzales in an extremely close 10-point tiebreaker 5-7, 7-5, 1-0(9).
The Commodores are back in action at home this Saturday to take on the LSU Tigers at noon.
