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4/20/2006 TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After taking the doubles point, the Commodores fell in a tiebreaker to No. 22 Arkansas (4-3) in the first round of the SEC tournament. When the two teams met in early March, the Razorbacks swept the ‘Dores 7-0. “This match shows our improvement, there’s no doubt about that,” VU Head Coach Ian Duvenhage said. Commodore duos Ryan Preston/Jordan Magarik and Nathan Sachs/Nik Cromydas quickly notched the doubles point for the ‘Dores. Preston/Magarik defeated Arkansas’ only ranked duo, #59 Adrians Zguns/Blake Strode (8-6), while Sachs/Cromydas earned their fourth consecutive doubles victory against Colin Mascall/Austin King (8-5). “We finished the SEC season strong in doubles. We’ve spent a lot time on it, and done a great job improving,” VU Assistant Coach Tom Boysen said. Throughout the singles contest, the two teams stayed neck and neck. VU’s Nik Cromydas defeated Colin Mascall in a straight set win (6-3, 6-0) after he suffered a straight set loss to Mascall during the regular season. Evan Dufaux recovered from his 6-2 first set loss to #72 Matt Roberts to notch the first two games in the second set. Roberts struck back, and held Dufaux at four to take the win 6-2, 6-4, putting the Hogs within 1. Jordan Magarik’s loss 6-4, 6-1 loss to Michael Jung tied the match at 2-2. Ryan Preston followed with a straight set upset over #19 Adrians Zguns at No. 1 (6-3, 6-4) to put the ‘Dores back in the lead (3-2). Preston fell to Zguns at the Commodore’s home SEC opener 6-4, 6-1. After falling in a first set tiebreaker to Arkansas’ Rohan Gajjar, Andy Mack was unable to match the Mumbia, India native and fell 6-2 in the second set to tie the contest at 3-3 going into the second set of No. 4 singles. The match came down to VU’s Nathan Sachs and Arkansas’ Blake Strode. The two stayed within at least two games of each other throughout the sets. Sachs had set point opportunity in the first set, but was unable to take the point and dropped a 7-3 tiebreaker to Strode. Sachs was up by a break in the second set, but Strode recovered to challenge Sachs in second tiebreaker, this time taking the win 7-5. “We were right there, but we have to learn to close these matches out when we have chances. It’s just unfortunate that we will probably not have another chance this season,” Duvenhage said. Tennis Match Results #22 Arkansas 4, #67 Vanderbilt 3 Singles competition Doubles competition Match Notes: |
