No. 8 Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis Blanks No. 55 Boilermakers

No. 8 Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis Blanks No. 55 Boilermakers

2/21/2004

No. 8 Vanderbilt Men’s Tennis Blanks No. 55 Boilermakers

NASHVILLE — The eighth-ranked Vanderbilt men’s tennis team scored a 7-0 shutout victory over the 55th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers Saturday at the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center. Although most of the matches on the day were hotly contested, the Commodores battled to pick up all nine victories.

Vanderbilt would sweep the doubles matches to take an early 1-0 team lead. The Commodores got victories from the pairings of senior Chad Harris/junior Scott Brown, senior Lew Smith/freshman Nathan Sachs and senior Zach Dailey/sophomore Greg Sossaman to earn their first doubles point in the last four matches.

In singles, the Dores would win six first sets, but it was not easy. Courts one, three and six all went to first-set tiebreakers, while four and five were decided by 7-5 tallies. Vanderbilt continued to fight, claiming the second set on courts three, five and, finally, two.

Junior Matt Lockin, ranked No. 27 in the nation, was the first Commodore off the court, defeating Purdue’s David Robinson, 7-6 (2), 6-4, at third singles. Smith quickly followed, finishing off Boilermaker Jarred Leibner, 7-5, 6-3, at fifth singles. Harris clinched the match for Vanderbilt at second singles.

The remaining three matches saw Commodores lose the second set but rally to victory in third and decisive stanza. Playing on center court for the first time in his VU career, No. 46 Brown defeated Purdue’s Paul Rose, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-2. At fourth singles, No. 45 Dailey earned a tough 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win over Colin Foster. Sachs finished off the sweep at sixth singles, winning a third-set super-tiebreaker, 10-6, to give Vanderbilt its final 7-0 margin.

With the win, the Commodores (6-4) avenge a pair of losses to Big Ten schools last weekend, while also breaking a four-game losing streak. Vanderbilt will take next weekend off before opening Southeastern Conference play with home matches against Florida and South Carolina on March 5 and 7, respectively.

Agate:
No. 8 Vanderbilt def. No. 55 Purdue, 7-0

Doubles
1. Harris/Brown (VU) def. Robinson/Rose (PU), 8-6
2. Smith/Sachs (VU) def. Chatterjee/Koziell (PU), 8-5
3. Dailey/Sossaman (VU) def. Foster/Havens (PU), 8-5*
Order of finish: 2, 1*, 3                      

Singles
1. No. 46 Scott Brown (VU) def. Paul Rose (PU), 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-2
2. No. 55 Chad Harris (VU) def. Troy Havens (PU), 6-3, 7-6 (2)
3. No. 27 Matt Lockin (VU) def. David Robinson (PU), 7-6 (2), 6-4
4. No. 45 Zach Dailey (VU) def. Colin Foster (PU), 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
5. Lew Smith (VU) def. Jarred Leibner (PU), 7-5, 6-3
6. Nathan Sachs (VU) Sounak Chatterjee (PU), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 1-0 (10-6)
Order of finish: 3, 5, 2*, 1, 4, 6