NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team defeated Western Michigan, 5-2, Saturday afternoon, and with the victory came head coach Ian Duvenhage’s 150th Commodore victory.
“It has been a great run so far here,” said Duvenhage. “There are a lot of guys that I’m incredibly proud of. We had some unofficial recruits in yesterday, and one of the moms asked, ‘could my son study engineering here while playing tennis,’ and I said absolutely we have had lots of engineers that have come through our program successfully, players who are now finishing up at medical school. We’ve also had really excellent tennis players who have done great things and some are now coaches themselves. So I’m proud of all the players I’ve coached.”
The Commodores win came with a slow start as VU narrowly clinched the doubles point over the Broncos. Cameron Klinger and Pen Binet gave Vandy a decisive 6-0 advantage on court one over Daniel Loebel and Kennosuke Nouchi, however WMU leveled the score taking court two over Billy Rowe and Lachlan McPhee, 6-3.
Tate Allwardt and Daniel Valent pulled off the point advantage with a 6-4 win over Nick Schnobel and Billy Heckman on court three.
In singles, Vandy took five first sets and four consecutive matches to earn the squad’s seventh win of the season. No. 97 Valent secured the ‘Dores their first singles victory on the day, defeating Maik Hamilton 6-4, 6-1 on court two.
McPhee, a junior transfer, earned his first Commodore win with a straight-set victory over Matej Scjetlicic. The Brisbane, Australia native edged out the Bronco 6-4 in the first set, then powered through the second, only allowing one game in his 6-4, 6-1 victory at No. 4 singles.
Moments later, Rowe clinched the victory for the black and gold in a 6-3, 6-2 decision over one of his doubles opponent, Jannik Optiz, on court five.
The remaining three matches went to third set ten-point tiebreakers, with the ‘Dores going 1-2. The Commodores final victory came on court three as Baker Newman continued stellar tennis after yesterday’s win over UVA for the fifth and final point, 6-2, 4-6, 1-0(7).
“Today was not an easy match and I knew it wasn’t going to be. Doubles got a little hairy, but we found a way to get it done. We all just need to regroup after the last two matches and get ready for tomorrow against Texas Tech.”
VU concludes its weekend play Sunday morning, taking on the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The first 100 fans at tomorrow’s 9 a.m. match will receive a donut.
