NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Each week This Week on West End takes a closer look at what’s in store for the Commodores in the coming days.
It’s postseason time for Vanderbilt men’s basketball. The Commodores open SEC Tournament play on Wednesday Bridgestone Arena. On campus the Vanderbilt soccer team begins its spring schedule while the lacrosse squad wraps up nonconference action.
Here’s more on all the other happenings around West End this week:
Men’s basketball
Vandy men’s basketball begins its postseason run at 6 p.m. Wednesday when it faces Texas A&M (8-9) in the first game of the SEC Tournament.
The Commodores finished the regular season 8-15 and will be the No. 12 seed in the tourney’s 13-team field. A win moves coach Jerry Stackhouse’s team into Thursday’s second round where it would face Florida (13-8).
Vanderbilt is coming off three road games in five days last week. It also went 3-5 in its final eight games of the season.
Baseball
Vanderbilt faces its toughest test of the early season with its first road trip. The Commodores (9-1) travel to undefeated Oklahoma State (9-0-1) for a three-game series Friday.
The Cowboys have swept Sam Houston State, Wichita State, Illinois State and Grand Canyon en route to its unblemished record. Vandy, meanwhile, has won six in a row (both teams have a single game this week leading up to the highly-anticipated matchup.
Vanderbilt took all three games from Illinois-Chicago over the weekend at Hawkins Field. It will be making its first ever trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where the Cowboys play at the brand-new O’Brate Stadium and are coached by Josh Holliday.
At 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Commodores will host Memphis and play the Tigers for the first time since 2014.
Soccer
The reigning Southeastern Conference champions begin the spring season by hosting Kennesaw State at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Head coach Darren Ambrose led his squad to an SEC Tournament championship in November and to a 2-1 record during three exhibition games over the past couple weeks. On Sunday, Vanderbilt fell 2-1 to visiting Racing Louisville FC.
The Commodores also have home matches with Lipscomb and Memphis before playing at Duke, matches all leading up to the NCAA Tournament.
Lacrosse
Riding back-to-back wins, Vanderbilt will look to close its nonconference slate when it hosts Kennesaw State at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Vanderbilt Stadium.
Vandy notched wins over Mercer (15-10) and High Point (17-13), respectively, last week to run its record to 4-2. Coach Beth Hewitt’s team is now averaging 11.2 goals per game and Maddie Souza has found the back of the net 15 times.
After Wednesday’s matchup the Dores will have an long layoff before starting American Athletic Conference play at Cincinnati on March 19.
Women’s tennis
Vandy women’s tennis got back on the right track Sunday with a 4-2 win at Missouri. The Commodores are now 11-2 overall and 3-2 in the SEC as they take the week off to prepare for a 1 p.m. Sunday match at Kentucky.
Marcella Cruz and Holly Staff have each notched 12 singles wins for Vandy this season while the tandems of Cruz and Emma Kurtz and Staff and Anna Ross have combined for 12 doubles wins.
Men’s tennis
The Commodores will look to snap a seven-game losing streak this week with a trip to Kentucky (5 p.m. CT Friday) and home tilt against Middle Tennessee (9 a.m. Saturday).
Vandy dropped matches at Middle and Arkansas, respectively, over the weekend and now sits at 4-7 overall and 0-5 in league play. Marcus Ferreira and Joubert Klopper led Vanderbilt with eight singles wins each this season.