May 12, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In May 2016, Emily Smith traveled to Vanderbilt as a member of Rice’s women’s tennis team to play in an NCAA regional. Smith faced the 32nd-ranked player in the country in single actions. That player was Vanderbilt’s Astra Sharma.
Smith didn’t know much about Sharma – at least, not enough to worry.
“I didn’t know how good Astra really was,” Smith said. “I think it worked out in my favor, because I wasn’t petrified going into it.”
One year later, Smith is plenty familiar with Sharma. The two student-athletes are teammates at Vanderbilt and doubles partners on the No. 3-ranked women’s tennis roster in the country. They will look to compete in the NCAA doubles tournament as the No. 1 seed in the draw, the first top-seeded tandem in Vanderbilt program history.
Sharma and Smith don’t often revisit their once-competitive past as opponents. However, their teammates still do.
“We had a team meeting yesterday, and Coach [Geoff Macdonald] brought our match up again,” Smith said. “Everybody just chuckles, like, ‘Yeah we remember.'”
What do the Commodores remember? An intense match between two talented competitors. Playing on court three, Sharma had been leading Smith, 7-6, 2-3, when Vanderbilt clinched a 4-0 win over Rice on another court. Today Sharma recalls her frustration of fighting off Smith’s skillset.
“I remember thinking Emily was definitely the loudest one there,” Sharma said. “There was a lot of tension on both sides. I know I was a bit mad about a few line calls. We were both being kind of obnoxious.”
Smith interrupts: “It was a pretty intense match.”
“But I was impressed with how good their team was down the lineup,” Sharma said. “I thought, if this is Rice’s No. 3 player, she should definitely be [ranked] higher.”
For Smith, her match with Sharma stood as her first true experience with SEC tennis. That played a role in the England native opting to transfer from Rice after the season. As Smith considered her options, she realized few opportunities matched Vanderbilt’s pairing of academics and athletics. The Dores, after all, had won the NCAA championship just two seasons earlier.
Plus, as Sharma competitiveness showed through, Smith recognized the kind of winning culture installed by Macdonald within the Commodore program.
“That one taste I had of Vandy, I was like, wow,” Smith said. “If that’s what it’s like all the time here, I want to be part of that.”
This week Sharma and Smith enter NCAAs with a 13-3 (7-2) record in doubles play. Sharma is a redshirt junior, the reigning SEC Player of the Year and the No. 3 singles seed in the NCAA tournament. The Australia native still remembers feeling like a newcomer herself, a freshman from halfway around the globe who knew little about Nashville. That’s why she tries to serve as a calming influence during doubles matches. If the younger Smith’s nerves show, Sharma makes it a point to talk up her teammate.
“I try my best to be that steady presence,” Sharma said. “But Emily has done a good job of seasoning an maturing and becoming a leader. I know she has what it takes to go far on this team.”
As Vanderbilt prepares for its NCAA regional match against SIU Edwardsville on Friday at 4 p.m. CT, both Sharma and Smith feel prepared to face whatever challenge the NCAA tournament presents. After all, they don’t expect to face anything tougher than their own doubles teammate.
“As heated as that match got, now we’ve both been on the end of each other’s competitiveness,” Smith said. “We’re both aggressive. We both like taking our games to our opponents. If we do our jobs properly, it just works.”