|
4/15/2006 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The stands and picnic tables were filled at the Currey Tennis Center as the Vanderbilt Commodores secured a No. 2 seed in the SEC tournament with their 5-2 win over No. 23 Kentucky on Saturday. The Vanderbilt doubles lineup stayed consistent with last Sunday’s contest, with Courtney Ulery and Liberty Sveke trying No. 2 for the third time this season, and Taka Bertrand and Amanda Fish back at No.1, their start of the season position. The lineup worked for the ‘Dores, and No. 1 Bertrand/Fish and No. 3 Ferrell/ Taylor quickly racked up two wins to take the point. Ferrell just became a regular doubles competitor in the middle of SEC season, but has won five of her six conference contests. “Caroline played very well in doubles and singles. I thought we had a really good doubles point, it served as a great momentum builder for singles,” VU Head Coach Geoff Macdonald said. Ulery and Sveke were unable to pull off a clean SEC sweep, and fell to UK’s Laura Maurer and Joelle Schwenk. The VU tandem was down by as much as three games, but took the Wildcats to a tiebreaker where they fell 5-7, making their regular season record 13-4 (9-1). Though Amanda Fish and Taka Bertrand are only at junior and senior status, they played like season veterans against the team that took the No. 1 seed at the SEC tournament in 2005. Amanda Fish went head-to-head with UK’s Kim Coventry for the second consecutive year, and took her second straight set victory against the Australia native 6-0, 6-2. Taka Bertrand followed with a straight set win against Laura Maurer, who defeated former ‘Dore Annie Menees last year in Lexington. Bertrand held Maurer to five games before the visibly frustrated Wildcat scored in the first set. Caroline Ferrell clinched the match when she downed Carolina Escamilla 6-3 in the second set, after playing winning 7-5 in the first. “I’m extremely pleased with how this team as fought and how far they’ve come,” Macdonald said. “At this time in the season many teams are mentally tired, because you have to concentrate so hard for so much time. But we did a great job of hanging in there.” Thanks to the UK win, the Commodores will receive a first round bye in the SEC tournament and will begin play on Friday at 2 p.m. against the winner of the No.7 and No. 10 seed contest in Gainesville. Brackets will be announced Sunday night. RESUTLS Doubles Singles |
