NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After coming back to win the doubles point, Vanderbilt’s 49th-ranked men’s tennis team cruised to a 6-1 win over No. 38 Northwestern on Friday at the Currey Tennis Center.
The victory was Vanderbilt’s second in a row as the Commodores improved to 5-2, while the Wildcats fell to 4-3. Vanderbilt is now 5-0 this season when it wins the doubles point.
The Commodores took a 1-0 lead in the match by sweeping all three doubles matches, but the point did not come easily.
Despite VU’s 57th-ranked team of Vijay Paul and Bryant Salcedo cruising to an 8-3 win in the No. 3 position, it appeared as if the Commodores would lose the doubles point.
“We’ve been talking about getting tougher the last couple of weeks,” Head Coach Ian Duvenhage said. “I think that we were down a break at No. 2 doubles and down a break at No. 1 doubles, and things didn’t look real good. We found a way to come back in both of those matches and win them.
“At the start of singles, they were ahead of us at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5, so three of the singles matches we were behind. The guys stiffened up and got tough and that is really what you have to do.”
VU’s No. 1 duo of Adam Baker and Alex Zotov were in a 4-1 hole to start the match and Vanderbilt’s No. 2 tandem of Ryan Lipman and Charlie Jones were down 6-3 at one point.
With Vanderbilt’s chances at the doubles point looking bleak, it was Baker and Zotov that began to head down the comeback trail by winning six of the next seven games to take a 7-5 lead against Northwestern’s team of Joshua Graves and Alex Sanborn. After dropping the next game to make it 7-6, Baker and Zotov won the next game and match, 8-6, to clinch the doubles point for the Commodores.
It was the fifth time in seven matches this season VU has won the doubles point.
Earning the sweep for VU were Lipman and Jones, who rallied from a 7-4 deficit to defeat Northwestern’s team of Tobias Reitz and Spencer Wolf, 9-8 (7-5).
Leading 1-0, Vanderbilt extended its lead to two, 2-0, when Adam Baker topped Mark Schanerman, 6-1, 6-2, in the No. 5 position. With the win Baker improved to 5-0 in dual play.
Northwestern cut into Vanderbilt’s lead when Sidarth Balaji defeated Vijay Paul, 6-4, 6-4, in the No. 2 position.
Leading 2-1, the Commodores finished off the Wildcats by winning two straight singles matches.
Earning VU’s third point was Bryant Salcedo, who knocked off Alex Sanborn, 6-3, 6-2, in the No. 3 position.
Clinching the match for the first time in his young college career was freshman Ryan Lipman, who rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to defeat Joshua Graves, 6-4, 6-4, in the No. 1 slot.
Charlie Jones gave Vanderbilt a 5-1 lead in the match when he overcame a first set loss to top Spencer Wolf, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, in the No. 4 position.
Alex Zotov improved to 7-0 in dual play when he closed the match with a Tobias Reitz, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-5) to give Vanderbilt a 6-1 win.
The Commodores also defeated Northwestern 6-1 in 2008.
Vanderbilt will wrap up play on Sunday when the Commodores host Purdue at noon.
