April 21, 2016
LIVE STATS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team begins the postseason in the bayou this week, taking on the Mississippi State Bulldogs on April 22nd at 10:00 am CT at the LSU Tennis Complex.
Taking place this season in Baton Rouge, La., the reigning SEC champions head into Friday morning’s SEC quarterfinal as the second seed and boast an 18-5 (11-2) record. The opponent, seventh-seeded MSU, advanced after knocking out the tenth-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks 4-1 Thursday morning.
Full coverage of the event can be found at http://www.lsusports.net/16SECWT
“We’re all excited for SECs,” said senior Courtney Colton. “It’s always exciting to go to postseason play and see the teams you’ve been playing all season. Everyone’s very good, and everyone is really going after it for the big SEC title… so we’re just really excited and amped to get going.”
The Commodores rose one spot to No. 5 in the latest Oracle/ITA rankings. Individually, Frances Altick (13) and Sydney Campbell (19) remain in the top-25, with Astra Sharma falling out to No. 26 after suffering a loss last weekend.
In tandems, Colton and Campbell will go to work in tomorrow’s competition as the fifth highest doubles team in attendance, coming in at No. 13.
In their last meeting during the regular season, VU earned a commanding 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs at home in Nashville. Since the defeat on April 1st, MSU has won out, riding a five-match win streak.
MSU boasts two ranked doubles teams both in the ITA-top 35. In singles, junior Jasmine Lee sits at No. 14 in the rankings heading into Friday’s play. Lone senior Georgiana Patrasc earned a career-best singles ranking at No. 32 this week, with Anastasia Rentouli rounding out the trio as No. 117.
“I’ve heard the tournament is really fun, but also really intense,” said freshman Fernanda Contreras. “You know the matches can be super close, with all the teams cheering so we’re excited to go and play for our seniors. They’ve been an awesome class and have supported us all season, academically, socially and in tennis. It’ll be fun also to try to repeat for last year’s seniors, Marie (Casares) and Ashleigh (Antal) who will be there cheering us on in spirit.”