Jan. 7, 2015
NASHVILLE, TENN. – The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released its first installment of collegiate tennis rankings Tuesday afternoon, with the Vanderbilt women’s tennis program debuting at No. 11. Vanderbilt is one of 16 schools with both women and men’s teams ranked in the top-25.
Showing consistency from a stellar 2013-14 season, the Commodores continue where they left off in the No. 11 position. And with one of its most fruitful falls in the books, the team looks forward to the season ahead.
“Early season ranking are a nice complement for the hard work players put in and I thought overall as a team we had a very successful fall”, said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “There are some players that aren’t ranked that I am surprised aren’t ranked, but we’re really looking forward to the team aspect of the year now. Hitting the ground running, we’re heading to Miami and that’s always a really good tournament. We hope to get ready for the team indoors and we’ve also got a great kick-off weekend to look forward to with Texas, DePaul, and Harvard, who are all very good teams”
In addition to the team accolade, two Commodores appear in the individual rankings; Sydney Campbell and Marie Casares.
After a trip to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship (NIIC), sophomore Sydney Campbell is the top ranked Commodore holding the No. 15 position in the country.
Senior Marie Casares now ranks No. 77 by the ITA, down five spots from her preseason ranking. In her junior campaign the Quito, Ecuador native had the single best season in Vanderbilt tennis history boasting 32 singles wins and 60 combined wins, a school record in both categories.
“We’ve got such a good team and at one time or another everyone in our top-eight has been ranked in singles and doubles and that’s great notice. Sydney [Campbell] being ranked 15th is nice recognition for the superb fall she had.”
Vandy also received two doubles accolades with junior transfer Ellie Yates and senior Marie Casares coming in at No. 20. After claiming a regionals championship and competing in the NIIC, junior Courtney Colton and Campbell are ranked No. 32 by the ITA.
The Commodores open their season in nine days in Coral Gables, Fla. competing in the Miami Invitational. The three-day tournament will feature the shortened formatting changes that the ITA passed in December.
The ITA shortened format:
-No-ad scoring in singles and doubles.
-Three doubles matches played, each match one set to 6, with a tie-break at 6-all.
– Followed (after a 5-minute intermission) by six singles matches, each match 2 out of 3 sets, with tie-breaks at 6-all.
-No warm-up with opponents (in doubles and in singles)
-This is the official format for all non-conference dual match competition with all singles matches being played to completion (doubles will remain “clinch”). It should be noted that NCAA conference rules supersede ITA rules, and therefore any conference can decide to do otherwise.