April 16, 2008
SEC Tournament Central Including Live Stats | View Tourney Bracket
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Fresh off its first road win of the season in the Southeastern Conference, Vanderbilt’s 31st-ranked men’s tennis team will hope to continue its momentum at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday when the Commodores play No. 46 Arkansas in the first round of the SEC Championship at the George M. Billingsley Tennis Center.
With its 4-3 victory at No. 43 Kentucky last Saturday, Vanderbilt (12-8, 4-7 SEC) earned the No. 8 seed in the tournament, while tournament host Arkansas (12-12, 3-8 SEC) is the No. 9 seed. The winner of the first round match will face defending national champion Georgia, the No. 1 seed, in Friday’s second round.
Vanderbilt’s win at Kentucky, coupled by Arkansas’ loss to LSU gave the Commodores the No. 8 seed. Had Vanderbilt lost at Kentucky, it would have been seeded No. 10.
Thursday’s meeting will be the second of the season between the two programs. On March 7, Vanderbilt dropped a tightly-contested match at Arkansas, 4-3. Four of the six singles matches spanned three sets, including the decisive three-hour marathon of a match in the No. 1 position between No. 54 Ryan Preston and Arkansas’ 90th-ranked Blake Strode. All three sets went into a tiebreaker before Strode was able to secure the overall match.
This will be the fourth meeting in the conference tournament between Arkansas and Vanderbilt with the Razorbacks holding a 2-1 advantage. Vanderbilt’s only win came in 1993 and was a 5-2 victory in the first round. The Razorbacks won matches in 1995 (4-3) and 2006 (4-3). Like this season, all three matches have come in the first round.
Individually, Preston is the only Commodore ranked in singles play, but many other players have been playing strong tennis lately. Nick Cromydas was Vanderbilt’s lone player to finish the SEC regular season with a winning record. Cromydas finished with a 6-5 record with wins in the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 positions. On the year, Alex Zotov leads the team with 21 wins, but he is followed closely by Vijay Paul’s 20 wins. Bryant Salcedo is coming off his first SEC win in the No. 4 position, where defeated Kentucky’s Will Beck, 6-2, 7-6(7).
Arkansas has won two of its last three matches after losing five in a row. The Razorbacks closed the regular season with a 5-2 loss to No. 18 LSU. Vanderbilt’s last win at Arkansas was on March 9, 2007, when the Commodores earned a 5-2 victory. Arkansas is led by Strode, who has earned 16 wins this season playing in the top spot. Freshman Chris Nott leads the team with 24 wins and has a five-match winning streak.
Vanderbilt’s match against Arkansas is the fourth and final first round match of the day. The first round of competition begins at 8:30 a.m. and runs until the conclusion of Vanderbilt’s match. The first four seeds in the tournament (Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee) each get byes in the first round.
Results from Thursday’s match will be available on vucommodores.com at the conclusion of play.
