April 17, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 19th-ranked Vanderbilt women’s tennis team will wrap up its regular season tomorrow as it travels to Lexington, Ky. for a tilt with No. 24 Kentucky Saturday. The Commodores (9-7, 5-4 SEC) have won six straight dual matches over its rivals to the north.
VU is coming off a pair of road losses to highly ranked Georgia and Tennessee. The ‘Dores fell 4-0 to No. 2 Georgia before closing the week with a hard fought 5-2 loss to the 13th-ranked Lady Vols in Knoxville. The two road losses snapped VU’s four-match SEC winning streak.
In 38 all-time meetings between the two schools each team has collected 19 wins. The ‘Dores are 15-3 against the Wildcats under current head coach Geoff Macdonald. In the last meeting, the Commodores edged the 23rd- ranked Wildcats to advance to the school’s 11th-consecutive Sweet 16 appearance in last season’s NCAA Tournament Championship.
Last year’s second round match-up with UK was highlighted by Catherine Newman’s three-set marathon comeback win over Kentucky’s Carolina Escamilla. After dropping the first set 6 games to love, Newman battled back to take the second set 7-6 and sweeping the two-set tiebreaker to force a third set. The Greensboro, N.C., native kept the momentum on VU’s side as she closed the final set out 6-2, pushing Vanderbilt into the Sweet 16 for 11th-time in school history.
The Wildcats (12-8, 3-5 SEC) are coming off a two-loss weekend to No. 2 Georgia and No. 13 Tennessee. In SEC play this season, the Blue and White have been led by the 47th-ranked doubles tandem of Carolina Escamilla and Caroline Lilley. The Wildcats have one player ranked in singles, with sophomore Megan Broderick coming in at No. 104 in this week’s ITA rankings.
Live stats of Saturday’s dual with the Commodores and Wildcats will be available via ukathletics.com or by clicking here.