KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Early Thursday morning the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team began competing in the 2015 USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships hosted by the University of Tennessee.
The Dores began the day going 2-1 in the first round of regional doubles action.
Leading the squad with an upset victory was sophomore tandem Tate Allwardt and Daniel Valent, who defeated Memphis’ seventh-seeded Lemke/Asser, 8-6. Ninth-seeded Baker Newman and Ryan Smith also added another win to their fall record, taking down UTC’s Plesky/Peacey, 8-5.
VU suffered a hard loss, as freshman Vikram Chari and senior Kris Yee fell in the tiebreaker of their first match together, 8-7(4), to the third seeded Arovin/Esteban of TTU.
Top-seeded Rhys Johnson and Pen Binet enjoyed a first round bye, and look forward to beginning doubles action Friday against Kentucky’s Ellefsen/Yates.
In singles action, VU went 9-4. The Dores began slow with two upset losses by Johnson and Binet, but began picking up wins as the day progressed. Yee, Smith, Newman and Valent, all seeded, look forward to competing in the round of 32 as several Dores face seeded opponents. Johnson, Binet and Chari will all begin competing in singles consolation action.
Impressive performances for the black and gold include Yee’s first round three set thriller, as the senior came back from a 6-3 first set loss to take the match 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 over MTSU’s Cordero. Sophomore Valent has dropped only three games in two matches, and looks forward to facing Dayton’s Fisher Friday at 9:00 am CT.
Looking ahead to Friday’s schedule, Vanderbilt will compete in the second and third rounds of doubles as well as one round of singles. For Commodore fans in the Knoxville area, admission is free.
