Jan. 13, 2012
The Vanderbilt men open their spring season at the SEC Coaches Indoor Championships, hosted by Kentucky this weekend. The tournament kicks off Friday at 8:30 in the morning with the doubles round.
“We’re using this tournament to get ready for the dual season so we don’t go into that first match against MTSU completely cold,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “We’ve had a few days of practice and it looks pretty good for this early in the year, but practice and match play are two different things, so we’ll see how it looks this weekend. But I like where we are right now.”
The young Commodores, ranked No. 37 by the ITA in the latest polls, showed signs of the potential and talent during the fall tournament season, but, as Duvenhage noted, needed to become a more consistent team.
“I thought the fall, we at times played extremely well but we were inconsistent,” said Duvenhage. “I think the inconsistency is probably something you expect to some extent from the younger players.”
Senior Charlie Jones pairs up with freshman Jeff Offerdahl, taking on a pair from Ole Miss (Backstrom/Kalberg), while Alex DiValerio and Joe Dorn face Machado/Pinhiero from South Carolina.
“Joe is probably our most improved player this past semester,” said Duvenhage. “I thought he did great, he’s gotten so much better. And Jeff and AJ (Austin) had a great fall. Suresh, when he’s good, he’s very good, but we’ve got to eliminate the bad days.”
Anton Kovrigin will see his first collegiate play in the tournament with Gonzalez Austin, after sitting the fall portion of the season with an injury.
Action will happen at both the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex and the Lexington Tennis Club on Friday and Saturday over the weekend, with singles and doubles first rounds spread over the two locations. Monday’s finals rounds will take place at Boone.
