Feb. 2, 2012
The Ivy of the South gets to face one of the Ivies of the North this weekend as the Vanderbilt Commodores take on the Harvard Crimson in Indiana on Friday afternoon.
The No. 66 Crimson, who jumped up the rankings from No. 73 in the last poll, have the No. 45 doubles pair, in Alistair Felton and Casey MacMaster. The Crimson enter this Friday’s dual match 3-0 this spring after defeating Denver, Drake, and DePaul last weekend.
Vanderbilt looks to hand Harvard their first loss of the season. Freshmen Jeff Offerdahl and Joe Dorn are coming off of strong matches against BYU and Pepperdine. Offerdahl forced two tiebreaker sets in the loss to Pepperdine, standing up to David Sofaer 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (8-6).
The Commodores have the No. 87 ranked player in senior Charlie Jones, who has gone 2-1 to start the spring season, and has proven himself to be a leader on and off the courts for the young team.
No. 34 Vanderbilt moved up the rankings after defeating Brigham Young over the weekend in the first round of the ITA Kick-Off weekend in Malibu, California. They lost to a dominant No. 12 Pepperdine in the championship round, but the young team showed much of the talent and toughness that the coaches have seen from Day One.
The Commodores take on the Crimson at noon CT Friday, and will play Indiana on Sunday at noon as well.
Match Notes:
#34 Vanderbilt, 2-1, last ranked #36
#66 Harvard, 3-0, last ranked #73
Ranked Individuals:
Vanderbilt: #87 Charlie Jones
Ranked pairs:
Harvard: #45 Alistair Felton-Casey MacMaster