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Men’s Tennis Vanquishes Vols 4-3 4/8/2005 Photos from Friday’s match available for purchase here. The No. 54 Vanderbilt men’s tennis team claimed the doubles point along with three singles matches en route to a 4-3 triumph over No. 25 Tennessee at the Currey Tennis Center. “I’m just so proud of these guys,” said Vanderbilt Interim Head Coach Eddie Coates. “Winning is starting to get contagious for us. We want it every time. It was a strange match with lots of peaks and valleys, but our guys stood up again. To beat an in-state rival is huge for us.” The Commodores got on the board first, capturing the doubles point on the strength of wins at both the first and third positions. At No. 1, VU’s No. 26 tandem of senior Scott Brown and freshman Jason Pinsky dropped the nation’s No. 6 pairing of Ockie Oosthuizen and Ben Rogers, 8-4. UT took the matchup at the second slot, setting up the decisive showdown at the third position. At No. 3, VU’s duo of Evan Dufaux and Ryan Preston traded games with UT’s combo of Kaden Hensell and Bobby Cameron until the matchup was knotted at 7-7. The Commodores broke the Volunteer serve to take an 8-7 advantage. The Dores held serve to take the match and the all-important doubles point, 9-7. In the singles draw, the Vols nabbed their first point of the day at the third slot, where UT’s Oosthuizen dropped VU’s Lockin, 7-5, 6-2. The Dores quickly countered with Brown’s showing at the No. 1 position. The St. Louis, Mo. native tripped UT’s Mark Dietrich in straights, 6-3, 6-2. Tennessee came back to knot the match once again at 2-2 with Morgan Wilson’s win at the fourth position over VU’s Nathan Sachs. Wilson captured the match, 6-4, 6-4. VU’s Preston put the Commodores to within one point of victory with his impressive, 6-2, 7-5 win over UT’s Kiril Tcherveniachki. The win was Preston’s 15th of the season and he ties Brown for the team lead. The Volunteers evened the match at 3-3 with their three-set win at No. 2. The match hinged on the showdown at the sixth position. The matchup pitted VU’s Dufaux against UT’s Kaden Hensel. VU’s sophomore took the first frame 6-4, but Hensel countered to take the second by the same margin. In the third, Dufaux took a 5-4 advantage and on his second match point, broke Hensel to earn the Dores the intense 4-3 win. “I knew he would be tight, down match point,” said Dufaux. “I just had to get the ball back and make him hit a few balls. I knew he would miss or give me something short. It’s big. They are ranked high and I think we secured a spot in the NCAA’s today.” With the win, Dufaux clinched the Commodore victory for the second time in three days. He improves his 2005 mark to 4-1. “Its sounds like a broken record, but I can’t say enough about the way Evan is playing at the third position,” said Coates. “Also, the crowd was fantastic today. That was probably the biggest crowd of the year and I thought they played a big part in today’s contest. It was a great competition today.” The Dores return to action on Sunday to take on the No. 8 Georgia Bulldogs. The match is slated for 1:00 p.m. Doubles |
