NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team concludes its road slate of competition with a pair of nationally-ranked contests at No. 29 Tennessee and No. 11 Georgia this weekend.
The team first heads to Knoxville for an 11 a.m. contest against the Volunteers on Friday before concluding the road portion of matches in Athens, Georgia on Sunday. First serve for that match is set for noon.
Debriefing
The Commodores are coming off a strong weekend of competition in which they went 2-1, including a thrilling home victory over SEC foe South Carolina.
Vanderbilt opened the home weekend with conference play against South Carolina. After dropping the doubles point, the team fought back to clinch four points at singles in the upset win. Holly Staff secured the win with a third set triumph on Court 3, taking the all-deciding match by a 6-4 score.
The team returned to the Currey Tennis Center two days later for a doubleheader against Florida and Tennessee State in which they split the matches. After dropping a tight battle to the Gators, the Commodores rallied to a 4-0 sweep of the Tigers to finish 2-1 on the weekend.
Scouting Report
With their matchup set for Friday, the Dores face the 29th-ranked Vols who currently have three individuals recognized in the Tennis-Point ITA Rankings at singles. Rebeka Mertana (30), Tenika McGiffin (55) and Elza Tomase (106) all come into the weekend contest ranked in singles while Daria Kuczer and McGiffin rank 15th as a doubles team and Esther Adeshina and Tomase are 69th.
The 11th-ranked Bulldogs welcome the Commodores to town with five individuals ranked at singles and two doubles teams among the top-40. Vandy will be tasked with taking on Mell Reasco (25), Lea Ma (29), Dasha Vidmanova (58), Meg Kowalski (83) and Ania Hertel (122) on the singles courts as well as Morgan Coppoc and Hertel (16) and Reasco/Vidmanova (38) on the doubles courts.
ITA Rankings
- The Commodores enter the weekend series ranked 39th
- Playing primarily at No. 1 singles, Anna Ross is 46th nationally in singles competition with a 13-8 record.
- Anessa Lee ranks 78th in singles this season, boasting a 19-11 overall record.
- Ross and her doubles partner Holly Staff are currently ranked 76th nationally on the doubles courts.
On the Radar
The Commodores will conclude the regular season next weekend with a trio of matches on home court. The team kicks off senior weekend with Mississippi State at 1 p.m. on April 15 before rounding out the doubleheader at 5 p.m. against Bellarmine.
Vandy hosts its regular season finale on April 17 with Ole Miss. A brief presentation honoring the senior class will take place prior to first serve at 1 p.m.