RALEIGH, N.C. – After cruising to a 6-1 win over No. 52 N.C. State on Friday, Vanderbilt’s men’s tennis team came within a hair of staying perfect on the season and defeating No. 33 Michigan on Saturday at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center.
However, instead of moving to 4-0, the 55th-ranked Commodores came up a few points shy in a 4-3 loss to the Wolverines that was decided by the sixth and final singles match of the day. With the loss, Vanderbilt fell to 3-1, while Michigan moved to 1-0 on the year.
“I’m proud of the way the guys competed, but this is the type of match we need to win,” head coach Ian Duvenhage said. “We can’t be patting ourselves on the back after this match. We need to win a match like this in order to continue the evolution of our program.”
Vanderbilt entered the match after dominating its first three opponents and winning 17 of its first 18 singles matches. It didn’t take long for Vanderbilt to realize a win against Michigan would not come as easily. The Wolverines opened the match by winning the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead.
After VU’s duo of Ryan Lipman and Alex DiValerio was defeated in the No. 2 position, VU’s 57th-ranked duo of Vijay Paul and Bryant Salcedo tied the doubles match up by topping Chris Madden and Chris Cha, 8-5, in the No. 3 position.
The doubles point came down to the No. 1 position where Michigan’s duo of Jason Jung and Evan King were able to edge VU’s team of Adam Baker and Alex Zotov, 9-8 (6), to claim the doubles point.
Michigan extended its lead to two when No. 50 Jason Jung defeated No. 29 Ryan Lipman, 6-0, 6-2, in the No. 1 slot.
Vanderbilt’s Bryant Salcedo pulled the Commodores within one, 2-1, when he defeated Mike Sroczynski, 6-4, 6-2, in the No. 3 spot.
Just as it looked like VU was edging closer, Michigan extended its lead to 3-1 when No. 73 Evan King defeated No. 71 Vijay Paul 7-5, 6-2 in the No. 2 position.
Trailing by two, a victory by Vanderbilt’s Alex Zotov in the No. 6 position pulled VU within one, 3-2. Zotov defeated Chris Cha, 6-1, 6-3.
Vanderbilt’s Adam Baker tied the match at three when he defeated George Navas, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, in the No. 4 position.
Just as the doubles point came down to the decisive match, so did the overall match. Tied at three, Michigan’s Chris Madden rallied from one set down to defeat 53rd-ranked Charlie Jones, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, in the No. 5 position.
Vanderbilt will return to the courts next Friday at the ITA National Indoors in Los Angeles.
