Jan. 30, 2015
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt continues its home streak as the No. 58 Memphis Tigers travel across Tennessee to take on the No. 11 Commodores on the indoor courts of the Currey Tennis Center Saturday at 12 p.m..
“We’ve had a really good rivalry with Memphis and I think they’ve emerged as a national level program in the last few years,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “It’s become a really great rivalry; we respect them and play them in a lot of the regional tournaments so we know them well. We talked this morning about how good they were last year, in fact they won four first sets against us last year, and reminded them again how good Memphis is. With our schedule there are no days off and no one to over look in the schedule. We’re really just looking forward to competing again and hoping for another great crowd.”
Vandy comes off a successful ITA Kick-Off, as the No. 1 seed compiled a 2-0 dual season record over two ranked teams. Vanderbilt remained undefeated in front of great Commodores crowds, not dropping a single match to No. 50 Harvard or the No. 22 Texas Longhorns.
Senior Marie Casares is currently on a seven-match win streak, which dates back to Oct. 25. Sophomore Sydney Campbell is riding a 5-0 win streak that includes wins over Florida’s No. 7 player in the country and a win against Texas’ two-time All-American, Breaunna Addison.
Memphis travels to West End this weekend with a 2-1 record. The Tigers are coming off a hard 4-0 loss to No. 4 Duke during the championship match of the ITA-Kickoff in Durham, N.C.
During Tournament season Vanderbilt’s Ashleigh Antal and Astra Sharma faced two Tiger opponents in singles play of the USTA-ITA Ohio Valley Regional. Both Commodores came out victories, advancing to regional semifinals.
During last season’s competition Vandy defeated Memphis 4-0 at the Currey Tennis Center. In the last three years the Commodores hold an undefeated 3-0 mark over Memphis.
Key returners for the Tigers include senior Alyssa Hibberd who is 18 wins shy of tying the program’s career doubles win record of 92. Sophomore Marta Morgan was named to the AAC All-Conference team after compiling a 24-6 singles mark and 17-10 doubles record.