RALEIGH, N.C. – Playing its first road match of the season against its first ranked opponent, Vanderbilt’s men’s tennis team put on an impressive showing on Friday by defeating No. 52 N.C. State 6-1 at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
With the win Vanderbilt moved to 3-0 for the first time in two seasons, while N.C. State fell to 2-1. The 3-0 start by Vanderbilt is its best since starting 5-0 during the 2007-08 season. Vanderbilt has now defeated N.C. State three seasons in a row.
“It wasn’t always pretty,” head coach Ian Duvnhage said of the win, “but I really liked the way we competed tonight. The match was 6-1, but it was really much closer than the score indicates. The only reason the score wasn’t closer was because of the way we competed.”
The Commodores started the match on a positive note by claiming two of three doubles matches to take a 1-0 advantage in the match. While Vanderbilt did win the doubles point, it did come at the expense of losing the team’s perfect record in doubles and singles matches. In the first two matches of the season, Vanderbilt won all 18 of its singles and doubles matches. On Friday, Vanderbilt only lost two of nine matches.
Vanderbilt took an early lead in doubles when Adam Baker and Alex Zotov defeated N.C. State’s duo of Rob Lowe and Frideric Prandecki in the No. 1 slot, 9-8 (4).
N.C. State rallied to even the doubles match in the No. 2 position when N.C. State’s Dominic Hodgson and Dave Thomson edged Ryan Lipman and Charlie Jones, 9-8 (1).
With the doubles point hanging in the balance, Vanderbilt’s 57th-ranked duo of Vijay Paul and Bryant Salcedo made sure the Commodores would claim the doubles point by defeating Fernando Banos and Jaime Pulgar, 8-6, in the No. 3 position.
Leading 1-0, the Commodores extended their lead to two, 2-0, after Bryant Salcedo took down N.C. State’s Dominic Hodgson, 7-6 (1), 6-2, in the No. 3 singles position.
Vanderbilt took a commanding 3-0 lead in the match when freshman Ryan Lipman rallied from one set down to defeat Jaime Pulgar, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the No. 1 position. Lipman is now 12-3 on the year.
Clinching the match for Vanderbilt was senior Vijay Paul. Like Lipman, Paul needed three sets in his win over Rob Lowe in the No. 2 position. Paul defeated Lowe 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.
Also earning wins for Vanderbilt were Adam Baker in the No. 5 position and Alex Zotov in the No. 6 position. N.C. State earned its lone point when VU’s Charlie Jones retired in the third set of his match against Dave Thompson. Jones’ retirement came after the match had already been clinched, and was not due to injury.
Vanderbilt will continue its play in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday when the Commodores face Michigan at noon.
