April 16, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 9 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team sets out for Columbia, S.C. this week to compete for the chance of earning an SEC Tournament title. As the No. 4 seed in the tournament VU looks to carry over its impressive lead play performance this week as they begin tournament action Friday morning at 9:00 am CT taking on defending SEC champ Alabama.
With sights set on Sunday’s championships match the `Dores first have to fight there way through 13 teams which help make up the best conference in collegiate tennis. Impressively enough, eight of the 14 SEC teams are currently ranked in the ITA top 25. Earlier this season the then- No. 10 Commodores took down then-No. 9 Alabama in Tuscaloosa in upset fashion 4-3.
“It’s the toughest conference tournament in the country and we’re playing the defending SEC champion in Alabama, a great team, said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “We had a really close match with them in Tuscaloosa about three weeks ago. Tomorrow will be a very different match as both teams have altered their lineups enough that the matchups are different. This is one of the most even years I’ve seen in the conference. The top five teams are all playing each other pretty close. There isn’t much drop off after that because the other teams are really good.”
With head coach Geoff Macdonald earning his 400th Commodore win late in the regular season, the Commodores hope to draw on their leaders knowledge and experience throughout the action.
“What I’ve learned is that you have to be a step in advance. This tournament is basically a preview of the NCAA tournament and it’s one of the strongest years in the conference. There’s no key to the tournament other than just going after each match and opportunity.
Tournament History:
Vanderbilt is 19-18 in SEC tournament matches under Macdonald. The `Dores have won at least one match in SEC postseason play in each of the last 14 seasons. Vanderbilt has competed twice in the tournament final, losing both times to Florida in ’96 and ’04.