April 1, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 24th-ranked Vanderbilt women’s tennis team will hit the road in conference play for a final time this weekend as they will face-off against a pair of top-20 teams this weekend. The Commodores (9-6, 4-2 SEC) will travel to Gainesville, Fla., for a Friday afternoon showdown with the third-ranked Gators (16-2, 6-0 SEC) at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex. The match with the Gators will get underway with doubles starting at 4 p.m. CT.
Two days later, Vanderbilt will travel to Columbia, S.C., for its last road match of the season against 19th-ranked South Carolina on Sunday. The match with the Gamecocks will be played at the Maxcy Greeg Tennis Center on USC’s campus and will start at noon.
VU is currently on a two-match winning streak after knocking off Alabama and Auburn last weekend. The ‘Dores outlasted Alabama, 4-3 on Friday in Tuscalossa before returning home to friendly confines of the Currey Tennis Center to sweep Auburn, 7-0 on Sunday. Vanderbilt’s Catherine Newman, Jackie Wu, Keilly Ulery and Hannah Blatt all went 2-0 in singles play last weekend while Blatt and Dillon led the squad in doubles with a pair of wins at No. 3.
Vanderbilt currently sits in fifth place in the stacked SEC East division with a conference record of 4-2. Florida and Georgia are currently tied at the top of standings with 6-0 conference mark while Tennessee and South Carolina are a game back at 5-1.
In the latest ITA national singles rankings, the Commodores have three players ranked in the top-85, led by Newman at 23rd. Wu is ranked 27th while Preeg is 82nd. VU’s sophomore duo of Preeg and Wu is also ranked 25th in doubles.
A Closer Look at Florida
Florida (16-2, 6-0 SEC) enters this weekend’s match against Vanderbilt as the nation’s third-ranked team. The Gators lead the SEC in overall wins with 16 and have three players ranked in the latest ITA singles poll and two doubles teams. So far this spring, Florida appears to be the deepest team in the conference and is led at the top by freshman Allie Will and Lauren Embree. Will is ranked ninth while Embree is 14th. The Gators are led in doubles by the nation’s fifth-ranked tandem of Marritt Boonstra and Will, while Embree and senior Anastasia Revzina are No. 35.
A Closer Look at South Carolina
South Carolina (12-4, 5-1 SEC) is currently on a four-match winning streak after picking up wins against Colorado (W, 5-2), Illinois (W, 4-3), Ole Miss (W, 4-3) and Mississippi State (W, 5-0) over the last 10 days. The Gamecocks will host Kentucky on Friday before playing host to Vanderbilt on Sunday. Individually, USC is led by 75th-ranked Ana Marija Zubori, 107th-ranked Anya Morgina and Dijana Stojic. Zubori is the reigning SEC Player of the Week, after going undefeated at the top positions in singles and doubles last week against Illinois, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State.
Live Stats of both of Vanderbilt’s matches this weekend will be offered on vucommodores.com, courtesy of gatorzone.com. Click the link at the top of the page to follow the action live.