Oct. 18, 2015
LAFATETTE, Ind. – Monday will be an exciting day for the top-ranked Vanderbilt women’s tennis team as the Commodores will be well represented in the 2015 Ohio Valley Regional Singles and Doubles Championship matches.
Winners of both competitions advance to National Indoors, which takes place at the home of the US Open the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY.
Last season Vanderbilt’s Sydney Campbell defeated fellow Commodore Courtney Colton for the regional singles title. And after a defeating Tennessee’s Hammond in a commanding 6-1, 6-1 win, Campbell will be facing a teammate once again, as No. 49 Frances Altick defeated VU’s No. 14 Astra Sharma in a close 7-6(5), 7-5 victory at the Schwartz Tennis Center. Neither Commodore has dropped a single set on their way to the final.
“We had a lot of very very good wins today,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “This was a great day, everyone played really well. Fran (Altick) and Astra’s (Sharma) match was an absolute prizefight. It’s always really hard to play a teammate, but it was incredible. The line calls and sportsmanship was perfect, I give them a lot of credit. Sydney (Campbell) played really really good tennis. She beat a couple of really great players in straight sets.”
Colton and Sharma continued making waves for the Dores on Sunday, as the pair handedly defeated Memphis’ Wind/Soln 6-3, 6-3.
“We almost had both teams of the singles and both teams of the doubles in, and were playing against Kentucky who is very good. They brought in two Lithuanians, two Indonesians and a Japanese player who are all really good. It’s unbelievable really, they’re world class, and we just fought them.”
For the second season in a row, Vandy was close to having a Vanderbilt vs. Vanderbilt doubles final, but Kentucky’s Adachi/Sutjadi came out on top of a competitive match, advancing 6-4, 7-6(6).
The Dores flourished in back draw competition as well, as senior Ellie Yates and freshman Fernanda Contreras both earned excellent wins to further their consolation runs.
Both tournament finals are scheduled to begin Monday morning at 8:00 am CT. For tournament scores and updates follow @ITAOhioValley on Twitter.
