March 18, 2015
NASHVILLE, TENN. – The No. 17 Vanderbilt men’s tennis team returns home, hosting in-state rival No. 40 Tennessee this Thursday at 4:00 p.m. and Kentucky on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.. The Commodores own a 13-5 overall record and 3-3 mark in SEC action.
“It’s a very big match for us for a number of reasons,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage, “we’re playing at home, we’ve got to get back on the right track after last weekend and it’s Tennessee. The goal is to get two wins this weekend, and it starts tomorrow. We’ve just got to come out and play really really good and inspired match. “
Vanderbilt comes off a hard weekend, suffering a pair of defeats on the road at Texas A&M and LSU, both by 4-1 scores. Vanderbilt took the doubles point over the Aggies as Pen Binet and Baker Newman earned their first ranked wins by defeating TAMU’s 9th ranked tandem, 6-4. At No. 2, Rhys Johnson and Jeff Offerdahl defeated No. 26 Efferding/Szabo; 6-2.
In Baton Rouge the Commodores’ No. 1 ranked team of Gonzales Austin and Rhys Johnson suffered their first defeat of the spring and fourth overall loss to the Tigers 18th ranked duo; 6-4. VU’s lone point came at No. 1 singles as No. 10 Austin added another ranked win to his repertoire.
“This week we just talked about what happened against LSU, because we really played a pretty good match against A&M. And we talked about the fact that LSU was really our first bad match of the season, and why it happened. So this week we’ve just been making the corrections we needed to make, tomorrow is an opportunity to get that right.”
Scouting the Vols:
Tennessee currently owns a 10-7 overall record and 2-3-conference slate. In the latest ITA rankings the Volunteers sit at No. 40, boasting two ranked singles players in No. 14 Mikelis Libietis and No. 95 Jack Schipanski. In doubles action Libietis and Hunter Reese team up to compete as the No. 2 team in the country. Last weekend Tennessee went 1-1, falling to Georgia 4-0, but defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks 4-1.
Last season the Commodores upset No. 15 Tennessee, 4-1 in a high-energy thriller. The win was Vanderbilt’s first over UT since 2006.
Scouting the Wildcats:
Kentucky owns an 8-11 record, going 0-5 in SEC play. The Wildcats went 1-2 last weekend, falling to Georgia and South Carolina, but sweeping Morehead state. In singles action Kentucky has two ranked players in No. 92 Beck Pennington and No. 125 William Bushamuka. In doubles, Kevin Lai teams up with Pennington as the 58th ranked tandem.
The Commodores and Wildcats squared off earlier this season in the ITA Kick-Off. Vanderbilt defeated Kentucky in a close 4-3 decision.