NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team (3-2) finished a five-match homestand Sunday afternoon with a 4-3 loss to Virginia Tech (4-1) at the Currey Tennis Center.
The Hokies, who suffered their first loss of the season against Middle Tennessee just a day earlier, showed no signs of fatigue as they took the top three singles matches and the doubles point to defeat the Commodores.
After dropping all doubles matches Friday against Florida Atlantic, Commodore tandems stayed close to Hokie competitors at the start of the match on Sunday. Halfway through the pro sets Commodores trailed by just one game on all courts. Virginia Tech pulled ahead with a win at No. 2 (Nik Cromydas/Vijay Paul), and followed with an intense tiebreaker win (10-8) over Andy Mack and Evan Dufaux at No. 1 to clinch the doubles point.
Commodores Evan Dufaux and Vijay Paul struggled at Nos. 2 and 3 (respectively) and despite several strong point wins, both competitors fell 6-0 in the first set and couldn’t recover in the second.
Andy Mack raised Commodore spirits as he notched his second straight set win of the season over Brandon Corace (7-5, 6-4). The victory set the Commodores at 3-1 behind Virginia Tech.
Despite a lead in the first set, Vanderbilt sophomore Nik Cromydas fell 7-5, 6-2 to senior Sweden native Arvid Puranen at No. 1 to clinch the Hokie win.
Senior Nathan Sachs followed with his fifth consecutive win of the season over Virginia Tech’s Yoann Re (7-6, 7-5) along with freshman James Moye who improved to 3-1 with his win over VT’s Pedro Graber (6-3, 6-4).
The Commodores will travel to Houston, Texas, February 10 to challenge North Carolina and Rice before they return to face Clemson in Nashville February 18.
RESULTS
Doubles
1. Graber/Delgado (VT) d. Mack/Dufaux (VU) 9-8(8)
2. Corace/Puranen (VT) d. Cromydas/Paul (VU) 8-4
3. Larregola/Re (VT) d. Sachs/Moye (VU) 8-5
Order of finish: 2, 1*, 3
Singles
1. Arvid Puranen (VT) d. Nik Cromydas (VU) 7-5, 6-2
2. Nicolas Delgado (VT) d. Evan Dufaux (VU) 6-0, 6-0
3. Albert Larregola (VT) d. Vijay Paul (VU) 6-0, 6-1
4. Nathan Sachs (VU) d. Yoann Re (VT) 7-6(8-6), 7-5
5. Andy Mack (VU) d. Brandon Corace (VT) 7-5, 6-4
6. James Moye (VU) d. Pedro Graber (VT) 6-3, 6-4
Order of finish: 2, 3, 5, 1*, 4, 6
