Feb. 28, 2016
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team split Sunday’s doubleheader, falling in a close 4-3 match to No. 23 Columbia and sweeping Sewanee, 5-0.
Vanderbilt began the day dropping the doubles point against the Lions, with losses on courts one and three. Pen Binet and Daniel Valent earned a huge tandems victory on court two, defeating No. 33 Rolski/Vermeer; 6-4.
The Commodores dropped an additional point in singles on court two, but rallied back to take three matches on courts one, four and two. The trend was kicked off by No. 64 Valent, as the sophomore earned a ranked win with a victory over No. 54 Sam Hadavi; 6-0, 6-4.
Sophomore Baker Newman leveled the score to 2-all on court four with a commanding first set victory; 6-2. Newman allowed his opponent, Rolski, four games, but came out with the win, 6-2, 6-4.
Cameron Klinger gave VU the 3-2 advantage after pulling out the first set 7-5 after being down 5-4, and then dominated the second set 6-1. The victory on court two was the freshman’s second this dual season.
Columbia took court five, but not before Kris Yee could take his fist set winning seven games in a row; 7-5. The senior came close to clinching the match but dropped his second and third sets, falling 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
For the third time this season the match came down to Alex Ross on court six. The freshman, with pressure on his shoulders, dropped the first set 6-1, and nearly forced a third set. Ross earned four games, but Columbia clinched the match 6-1, 6-4.
One hour later the Commodores were back on the courts, taking on the Sewanee Tigers. Vanderbilt clinched the doubles point on courts two and three.
With the one point advantage, Vandy continued to dominate the courts with singles wins by Pen Binet, Klinger, Newman and Johnson.
With the win over Sewanee the Commodores now own an 8-5 dual season record.
Vanderbilt hits the road next weekend as the squad travels to Chapel Hill, N.C. The Commodores face the No. 1 Tar Heels Friday, March 4th, at 3:00 pm CT.
