Oct. 8, 2016
ATLANTA, Ga. — Tate Allwardt of the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team will be competing in the division three singles championship match at the Georgia Tech Invitational on Sunday morning. Still undefeated, the junior has downed opponents from Miami, Furman and Auburn to advance into his first collegiate tournament final.
“These fall tournaments are interesting because the results don’t always tell you the full story,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “We had a variable day in terms of results, but there were a lot of things that I saw that I liked. Tate (Allwart) obviously being in the final of his draw is a great accomplishment.”
Both of Allwardt’s Saturday competitions were true tests, as he was forced to regroup after dropping his first set in quarterfinals and then power his way through a first set tiebreaker, 7-6(3), 6-4 in tournament semis.
The Boca Raton, Fla. native is set to face a conference foe in Auburn’s Brandon Lauber in Sunday morning’s flight championship. Other Commodores to earn singles victories throughout Saturday’s tournament play included top-seeded Cameron Klinger and sophomore Alex Ross.
The highest ranked player in the draw, 60th-ranked Klinger came out victorious in a fight against Georgia’s Nathan Ponwith, 7-6(4), 7-5. Ross also came out on top of a straight set battle, defeating Miami’s Nile Clark, 6-4, 6-4.
“Cam (Klinger) this morning played a great match against Nathan Ponwith, and even though he lost in the semis, there were some positive things that came from that match… areas of clear growth that I think are very important. Alex lost against a guy from Georgia Tech, but then we talked about it and he turned around to play a really good match against Clark from Miami.”
In doubles, the hard work continued for the Commodores as Klinger and Billy Rowe picked up a quality win against Georgia Tech’s Kay/Yun, 8-7(4). The duo was the only Vandy pair to earn a doubles victory on Saturday with Allwardt/ Panu Virtanen falling 8-4.
“I think Billy and Panu both have played great matches in singles. Panu is 0-3, but really played a good match this afternoon. Vikram (Chari) was unfortunately sick today, but everybody has their list of stuff they need to work on. What’s most important is that there has been progress in those areas. Even though I would have liked to have seen more wins, I’m seeing the kind of progress that I’d like to at this stage.”
The Commodores will begin the final day of the Georgia Tech Invitational with doubles consolation play at 8:00 a.m. CT. Singles is set to follow at 8:45 a.m. CT.