|
No. 6 VU Blanks No. 23 Georgia Tech 7-0 2/27/2005 The No. 6 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team swept both the singles and doubles draw on Saturday afternoon on its way to dropping the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 7-0 at the Currey Tennis Center. In doubles action, the Commodores took their first match of the day at the No. 2 position, where VU’s Taka Bertrand and Amanda Fish tripped Tech’s Kelly Anderson and Lyndsay Shosho. Bertrand and Fish got out of the gates quickly against the Yellow Jackets, taking seven of the first eight games. The Commodore duo held on to take the match, 8-5. The Dores clinched the point at the No. 3 position, where the freshman tandem of Caroline Ferrell and Amanda Taylor fought back from a 5-6 deficit to claim the next three games en route to their ninth doubles triumph of the season, 8-6. The showdown at No. 1 pitted VU’s No. 33 twosome of seniors Audra Falk and Annie Menees and Tech’s No. 11 pairing of Kristi Miller and Alison Silverio. In early action, the Dores broke the Yellow Jackets to pull even at 2-2. The Dores then held serve to take a 3-2 lead. The Jackets battled back later in the match to knot the score at 6-6, but the Commodores proved too strong, taking the match, 8-6 “Doubles was really a tough fight for us today,” said VU’s Ferrell. “They came out strong, but we came back and really focused on our targets. It really helps to clinch the doubles point. It definitely gets us fired up for singles.” Speaking of singles, Ferrell garnered the second point for the Commodores against the Yellow Jackets, tripping Tech’s Whitney McCray at the No. 6 position, 6-3, 6-1. With the win, the VU freshman moves her collegiate singles mark to 9-1. VU’s Taylor rung up the third Dore point of Saturday’s action with a straight set defeat of Tech’s Silverio, 6-3, 6-4. Taylor joins her freshman counterpart Ferrell with nine wins of her own. The clinching point came by way of Menees’ victory at the No. 5 slot. Menees claimed a hard fought first frame and used that momentum to down Tech’s Shosho, 7-5, 6-2. The victory improves the VU senior’s record to an impressive 5-0 at the No. 5 position in 2005. VU increased its lead to 5-0 with a courageous performance from freshman Bertrand. The Langley, Virg. native garnered the first frame, 6-3, but Tech’s Anderson took control of the second, getting out to a 4-1 lead. The feisty freshman battled back to even up the match at 6-6 and eventually prevailed in the intense breaker, 7-6 (9-7). The Dores garnered wins at both No. 1 and No. 3 to give Coach Geoff Macdonald’s squad their sixth and seventh points of the day. The showdown at No. 1 featured VU’s No. 29 Audra Falk and Tech’s No. 20 Miller. Falk proved her toughness in the first, notching the first frame 6-3 and coming from behind in the second to finish off her opponent, 6-3, 7-5. Falk’s win was her sixth triumph over a ranked opponent this season. Amanda Fish closed out the Commodores victory with her eighth win of 2005. “I was worried with this being our first match outside,” said Macdonald. We haven’t been outside a lot this season. Today was a really big win for us. It could have been a lot closer. We won some close matches today and it was big for us.” The Commodores look for their 10th win of 2005 as they open the SEC season playing host to Ole Miss on March 4. The contest is set to get underway at 2:30 p.m. Doubles Singles |
