Sept. 24, 2016
ATHENS, Ga. – Playing a total of 12 tennis matches on the second day of Southern Intercollegiates, the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team gained vital experience on Saturday. VU began day two of the tournament season competing in two rounds of doubles, with one of the `Dores youngest teams nearly taking down a top-10 opponent.
Participating in the Division I round of 64, all three competing doubles teams dominated in their first matches of the day. Vandy only allowed two games along three competitions. The pair of Daniel Valent / Tate Allwardt defeated Virginia Tech’s Kros/Mesmer, 6-0, for the first shutout win of the season.
The Commodore pair of Cameron Klinger / Billy Rowe nearly pulled off what would have been the upset of the day during round of 32 play. Facing Ole Miss’ No. 6 Babic/Kraljevic in their second match together, the VU duo fell in a dramatic tiebreaker, 7-6.
In the Division II bracket, Alex Ross and Vikram Chari traveled to Athens, only to play a doubles team a few blocks away from Vanderbilt’s campus. The sophomore pair competed against Belmont’s Khan/Russo, with the Bruin’s taking the win, 6-3.
Following doubles, Vandy played one round of singles Saturday afternoon. Coming off fantastic wins on day one, all four remaining Commodores fell in the round of 16.
In the Division I bracket, No. 21 Valent and No. 60 Klinger dropped close competitions to student-athletes from Oklahoma. Facing the Sooner’s 50th ranked Spencer Papa, Valent found himself on the wrong side of two tiebreakers. Klinger won his first set in a tiebreaker, but lost in the following sets 6-2, 6-2.
Vying for a spot in Sunday’s Division II quarterfinal play, Panu Virtanen and Alex Ross were also ousted from tournament contention. Miami’s Jesse Flores was able to take the first set over Virtanen, 7-5, and carry the momentum over into the final set, 6-1. After defeating Arkansas’ Jacob Herndon in three sets on Friday, Ross was defeated by a regional foe in ETSU’s Miguel Este, 6-3, 6-3.
Competing outside of the bracket, Tate Allwardt lost in a close ten-point tiebreaker to UGA’s Jan Zielinski; 6-3, 2-6, 1-0(9).