ANN ARBOR, Mich. – In the first of two matches this weekend, the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team topped No. 23 Washington Saturday afternoon. After sweeping all three doubles matches, the Commodores won four of six singles matches to claim the victory.
“It was a great win or us today,” said assistant coach Jamie Hunt. “Washington is a very talented team, but we’ve been working so hard in practice that we expected to win today. A loss would have been very disappointing.”
Adam Baker and Ryan Lipman got things started for the ‘Dores with an 8-4 win in over the 30th ranked doubles pair of Kyle McMorrow and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in the No. 1 match. Bryant Salcedo and Alex DiValerio clinched the doubles point with a hard fought 9-7 win in the No. 3 match. Charlie Jones and Alex Zotov completed the sweep on court two with an 8-7(6) win over the 33rd ranked pair of Martin Kildahl and Tobi Obenaus.
The Commodores won their first four singles matches en route to the victory. Lipman posted a 6-3, 7-6(4) win on court one, followed by Salcedo’s 6-4, 7-5 in the No. 5 match. Zotov clinched the win for Vanderbilt with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over Marton Bots on court six.
“Alex showed a lot of fight and heart today,” said Hunt. “After falling in the first set he was able to fight back and clinch the win for us. He stayed determined, that’s just the kind of player he is.”
Jones added an insurance point for Vanderbilt with a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory over No. 83 Martin Kildahl in the No. 3 match. Baker and freshman Blake Bazarnik both suffered three-set losses this afternoon. Washington’s Kyle McMorrow, the 81st ranked player in the nation, outlasted Baker, 7-6, 2-6, 6-4, in the No. 2 match, while Bazarnik fell 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 on court four.
Vanderbilt returns to the courts tomorrow morning to take on No. 22 Michigan. The Wolverines defeated Washington, 4-3, on Friday evening. Live scoring and video of the match will be available . Also, the match will be televised by the Big Ten Network on tape delay on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 9 a.m. CT.
