COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team earned a 7-0 sweep over South Carolina Friday afternoon at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center. The Commodores won all three doubles matches before sweeping all six singles matches to pick up their fifth 7-0 win of the season.
The Commodores shuffled the lineup in doubles play, and saw success on all three courts. Alex Zotov and Blake Bazarnik earned an 8-5 win in the No. 3 match, before Adam Baker and Charlie Jones clinched the doubles point with an 8-6 win on court one. With the doubles point clinched and the score tied at 7-7, Ryan Lipman and Bryant Salcedo played to a 12-10 win in the tiebreaker against South Carolina’s Chip Cox and Alexander Kostanov on court three.
In singles, the Commodores won five matches in straight-sets, with just two sets going to tiebreakers. On court six, Bazarnik earned a 6-3, 6-2 win over Harry Menzies. Salcedo followed that up with a 6-1, 6-3 win in the No. 4 match. Jones clinched the victory for the Commodores with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Cox on court three.
On court five, Zotov dropped his first set, 3-6, but rebounded with 6-3 wins in the next two sets. Lipman and Baker concluded the sweep with wins in the Nos. 1 and 2 matches. Lipman held off Ivan Machado, 7-6(8-6), 6-2, on court one before Baker held off Alexander Kostanov, 6-1, 7-6(7-3) on court two.
“The guys did a great job today,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. Winning 7-0 on the road in the SEC is very hard to do, but they played with great energy and great intensity today. It was a great start to the weekend and we have another big test on Sunday against a great Florida team but I like what we are doing right now. We’ve built a lot of confidence in the last week and we are ready to keep it going.”
The Commodores continue their road trip at Florida on Sunday. The match is scheduled to being at noon and live stats can be found here.
