WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The No. 1 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team comes home from the 2015 USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships with some serious hardware, as the ‘Dores took home the singles championship title and runners-up honors in singles and doubles.
The 2015 regional became a bit of a deja vu experience for the Commodores, as Vanderbilt battled UK once again in the doubles championship, and two Commodores vied for the singles title for the second year in a row.
“This year was a really much improved regional,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “I thought last year we dominated pretty easily. This year we had to fight to advance against a lot of good players.”
The final day of tournament competition began with doubles, as second-seeded Courtney Colton and Astra Sharma took on Kentucky’s top-seeded Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi.
While the tandem fought hard to keep the Wildcat duo at bay, for the second year in a row UK advanced to compete at the National Indoor Championships, 6-3, 6-4.
“Overall it was a great final. In the doubles final Kentucky played really well. Courtney and Astra didn’t play as well as they had in some previous matches, but I give Kentucky a lot of credit. I think they came up with some really good shots and big points. It was very close, it almost turned to us looking at a ten-point breaker to see who wins and then they got it.”
But the day wasn’t over for the Commodore squad, as fellow teammates No. 7 Sydney Campbell and No. 49 Frances Altick would battle one another for the regional singles title.
“It’s always tough to play a teammate, it just feels a little off. But they both played great tournaments and had some really good wins.”
Coming into the finale, neither Commodore had dropped a single set and were both looking to make that streak continue. But it was Altick who pulled out the first set, taking the advantage over the 2014 singles champion 6-3. Campbell battled back in the second set, but Altick cemented the victory, taking the title and the opportunity to play in National Indoors; 6-3, 7-5.
“We could not be happier for senior Frances Altick to have the opportunity to travel to New York and compete in National Indoors. Frances works incredibly hard, played an amazing tournament and has earned the right of representing Vanderbilt at the upcoming event.”
Vanderbilt is back at home this weekend as the Commodores host their annual June Stewart Invitational Oct. 23rd-25th.
