NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 43 Vanderbilt Commodores topped the No. 64 Northwestern Wildcats on Sunday in a 4-3 battle that came down to the final singles match, handing the Wildcats only their second loss of the season.
Jeff Offerdahl clinched the match for the Dores, defeating Nikhil Jayashankar 6-4, 6-3 after falling behind 0-2 in his second set. With match point on the line, Offerdahl volleyed a shot that Jayashakar dumped into the net to seal the victory for Vanderbilt.
Gonzales Austin locked up the match 1-1 after the Dores dropped the singles point, defeating his opponent, Sidarth Balaji, 6-3, 6-3.
“Charlie Jones and AJ did a great job of getting us off the courts and on the board, and Jeff did a phenomenal job winning the match,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage.
With the match in jeopardy, Anton Kovrigin fought back after dropping his second set to tie the match back up at 3-3, keeping chances alive for the Dores as the crowd cheered him on.
“If Anton can play with that level of intensity on a regular basis, no one’s going to want to play him,” said Duvenhage. “Especially after losing his second set, he just came right back out and got to work.”
The team fell behind early in doubles as Alex DiValerio and Joe Dorn fell to 0-4 on court three, and Jones and Offerdahl fell behind 1-4 on court two. Northwestern has dropped only one of its seven doubles points this season.
But the Dores took on the challenge. While Jones and Offerdahl fell short of completing a rally attempt on court two, Austin and Bazarnik made sure the doubles point was within grasp with an 8-2 win on court one.
Then, down 5-1 with the game, 40-0 in favor of Northwestern, Dorn and DiValerio battled back for the point, their persistence paying off in a momentum shift that saw the Dores down to the wire tied 7-7 in the match. Northwestern eventually came out on top of a 9-8 (7-4) tiebreaker.
Northwestern’s Spencer Wolf bested Blake Bazarnik, while Alex Pasareanu topped Dorn.
Vanderbilt, who improved to 4-3 thanks to their first 2-0 weekend, hosts Memphis next Friday at 2:00 p.m. CT.
Results:
Singles:
1. #87 Charlie Jones (VU) def. Josh Graves (NU) 6-2, 6-3
2. Gonzales Austin (VU) def. Sidarth Balaji (NU) 6-3, 6-3
3. #97 Spencer Wolf (NU) def. Blake Bazarnik (VU) 6-3, 6-4
4. Anton Kovrigin (VU) def. Raleigh Smith (NU) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
5. Alex Pasareanu (NU) def. Joe Dorn (VU) 6-3, 6-0
6. Jeff Offerdahl (VU) def. Nikhil Jayashankar (NU), 6-4, 6-3
Doubles:
1. Austin-Bazarnik (VU) def. Graves-Wolf (NU) 8-2
2. Smith-Pasareanu (NU) def. Jones-Offerdahl (VU) 8-5
3. Jackman-Balaji (NU) def. DiValerio-Dorn (VU) 9-8 (7-4)
Match Notes:
#43 Vanderbilt, 4-3
#64 Northwestern, 6-2
Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1,3), Singles (2,5,1,3,4,6)
