NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After building a 3-1 lead in the match, Vanderbilt’s 30th-ranked men’s tennis team was able to hold off a pesky Mississippi State team, 5-2, in a match that spanned four hours and featured many gut-wrenching moments for those in attendance Sunday at the Currey Tennis Center.
Faced with a road trip to No. 2 Tennessee and No. 11 Georgia next week, Vanderbilt, 9-4, 1-1 SEC, needed a win over the 40th-ranked Bulldogs, 6-5, 0-2 SEC to avoid starting 0-2 in the league for a second straight year. A win is exactly what the Commodores got, but it did not come easily as the team improved to 7-1 at home this season and defeated Mississippi State for the third straight year.
“I’m really proud of the guys,” Head Coach Ian Duvenhage said. “We had it and then we lost it a couple of times. We showed a lot of heart out there, so I’m really proud of the team. This was a huge match for us because you do not want to be 0-2 in the SEC.”
The Commodores started the match by sweeping all three doubles matches for the eight time this season to take a 1-0 lead in the overall match. Winning the doubles point should have been a sign of good things to come for the Commodores, who are now 9-0 when winning the doubles point.
After Vanderbilt had built a 1-0 lead in the match, Mississippi State evened the match at one when Artem Ilyushin topped Bryant Salcedo, 6-4, 6-3, in the No. 2 singles slot.
However, the tie would be short lived. Less than a minute after losing the lead, Vanderbilt would regain it when Alex Zotov defeated Antonio Lastre, 6-4, 6-1, in the No. 4 position. The win by Zotov came after his 14-match win streak was halted on Friday.
Vijay Paul put Vanderbilt on the brink of its first conference victory when he topped George Coupland, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), in the No. 3 position. It was the fourth win in a row for Paul, who is 2-0 in the SEC.
Holding a 3-1 advantage, Vanderbilt appeared to be very much in control of the match with just three singles matches remaining. However, Vanderbilt was down a set in the Nos. 1 and 5 positions and it appeared the match would come down to Vanderbilt’s Alex DiValerio in the No. 6 position.
After taking the first set against Christopher Doerr, 6-4, in the No. 6 position, DiValerio built a 3-1 lead in the second set and was up 5-4 with match point before losing the second set, 7-5. The match appeared to be heading the same direction of his Friday match when he won his first set against Ole Miss and was up big in the second set before losing.
But DiValerio had other plans.
With DiValerio’s third set underway, Mississippi State was able to cut into Vanderbilt’s lead when Daniel Sanchez knocked off Adam Baker, 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-2, in the No. 5 slot.
In the third set, DiValerio found himself in a 4-2 hole before winning the next two games and eventually forcing a tiebreaker. DiValerio built a 6-0 lead in the tiebreaker and held on to clinch the overall match, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2). It was the second match DiValerio has clinched this spring (Chattanooga).
As DiValerio’s match was taking place, Vanderbilt’s Ryan Lipman was building a 4-2 lead in his third set against No. 100 Louis Cant in the No. 1 position. However, Cant would rally to even the match at four and like DiValerio’s match, Lipman’s match would come down to a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Lipman took a 5-3 lead and won the tiebreaker 7-4 to take the match, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).
In doubles, Vanderbilt’s duo of Ryan Lipman and Bryant Salcedo got the Commodores heading in the right direction when they posted an 8-5 victory over the duo of Lastre and Sanchez in the No. 2 position. Vanderbilt was up 5-4 in the match before breaking MSU’s serve to take command of the match.
Clinching the doubles point was Vanderbilt’s No. 3 duo of Vijay Paul and Alex DiValerio, who defeated the duo of Doerr and Cant, 8-4, to improve to 4-0 on the season and 2-0 in SEC play.
After having their six-match win streak halted on Friday, VU’s No. 1 duo Alex Zotov and Adam Baker got back on track with an 8-7 (7-5) victory over the tandem of Coupland and Ilyushin.
Vanderbilt will return to the courts next weekend when they travel to Tennessee on Friday and Georgia on Sunday. Both matches will be played at noon CT.
