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No. 5 Vanderbilt Stuns No. 2 Florida in Thriller, 4-2 3/11/2005 The No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s tennis squad handed Florida its first loss of the season on Friday afternoon, dropping the Gators in dramatic fashion, 4-2, at the Currey Tennis Center. “I am so pleased,” said Vanderbilt Head Coach Geoff Macdonald. “We are very young and dinged up, but to beat a No. 2 team is great. To come back from a tough doubles defeat and get the win is big. I am extremely impressed with our maturity and our hard work today.” The Commodores got things going quickly in the doubles draw, taking the first match of the day at the No. 2 slot. VU’s No. 55 pairing of Taka Bertrand and Amanda Fish grabbed their 11th win of the season as they upset Florida’s No. 5 twosome of Whitney Benick and Lolita Frangulyan, 8-5. The Gators soon countered the Commodore triumph at the second position with a win of their own at the third. UF’s Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak handed VU’s Caroline Ferrell and Amanda Taylor their second loss of the season, setting the stage for a thriller at the No. 1 position. The first position showcased the No. 21 Commodore tandem of seniors Audra Falk and Annie Menees battling the No. 10 UF duo of Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes. The Dores surrendered the first three games of the showdown, but fought back to claim the next three. The match was knotted at 5-5 before the Commodores broke the Gators for a 7-5 lead. Falk and Menees had match point at 7-5, but could not convert and Florida took the Dores to a decisive tiebreak. The Gators laid stake to the breaker, 7-5 and captured the doubles point for Florida. The Commodores needed four wins in the singles draw to knock off the Gators. VU’s No 53 Fish got the Commodores their first. The Dore sophomore garnered her 11th singles victory of the season as she tripped UF’s No. 51 Berecz in convincing fashion, 6-3, 6-1. UF’s Benick broke the tie with her win at the fifth position, but not a moment later VU’s No. 89 Bertrand knotted the showdown once again with her straight set win over UF’s No. 12 Reyes, 6-3, 6-1. The win was Bertrand’s third victory over a ranked opponent in as many tries. With the showdown all square, Vanderbilt notched its third point of the afternoon with Taylor’s triumph at the fourth position. The Commodore rookie nabbed the first frame, 7-5 and kept the pressure on to will her way to a 7-5, 6-4 decision. All eyes in the Currey Center shifted focus to the matchup at the first position, where VU’s No. 14 Falk battled UF’s No. 10 Magley. The Florida netter grabbed hold of the first frame, but the Commodore senior battle her way back to take the second, 6-2. With a possible VU upset on her racket, Falk refused to disappoint the full house looking on. She served out the match to land the Commodores their 12th victory of the season. “I was telling myself to take deep breaths and that it wasn’t match point,” said Falk. “I’ve been training for three and a half years for this and I just told myself to go after it.” The win moves the Commodores to 12-1, 3-0 SEC and drops the Gators to 6-1, 2-1 SEC. The Dores hand Florida their first loss in their last 18 regular season conference contests. VU 4, Florida 2 Doubles Singles |
