Jan. 12, 2012
The No. 15 Vanderbilt Commodores open their spring dual season with four back-to-back home matches, beginning with cross-town opponent Lipscomb on Friday.
Coming off a fall tournament season that saw senior Jackie Wu win the ITA Ohio Valley Regional, the emergence of freshmen Marie Casares and Ashleigh Antal, and the promising development of junior Nelly Radeva and sophomore Lauren Mira, the Commodores stand in good position for a challenging spring schedule.
“You do a lot of preparing and it’s really great to finally get into match play,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “It makes practice so much better because they realize that they’re reacquainting themselves to what the actual game is about. It makes practice just much more specific and productive.”
With a team that could find six of their players ranked at some point this season and a core of returning players who proved themselves last year, the Dores are, as Macdonald said, looking “rock solid.”
“It was a wonderful year last year,” said Macdonald. “I thought we handled a lot of bumps in the road with a lot of class and competed beautifully. We only got beat by a handful of teams, if you look at it that way, because we avenged a couple of losses, and we avenged them later in the year. We got better.”
Three of the women are already ranked, as Wu, Mira, and Casares found themselves on the ITA’s list, released last week.
But before the team travels to ranked opponents, they face a grueling four matches in five days’ time.
After the Commodores play Lipscomb on Friday, they face Miami (Ohio) Redhawks Saturday, Austin Peay Govs on Monday, and Belmont Bruins Tuesday during the opening homestretch.
The Dores met against the Bison, Redhawks and Bruins earlier in the fall during the June Stewart Invitational, hosted here in Nashville at the Currey Tennis Center.
“We know Lipscomb and Belmont and Miami (Ohio) from playing the June Stewart, so we know them. Austin Peahy, we don’t know them,” said Macdonald. “All four of the teams have great coaches.”
First up, Lipscomb returns three players to their squad in sophomore Alyssa Bellini and seniors Samantha Bowman and Elizabeth Keevil.
Vanderbilt finished their 2010-11 season with the program’s 13th run to the Sweet 16–a nearly yearly occurrence for a Commodore program who has become a perennial post-season contender.
They travel to Northwestern to face both DePaul and the Wildcats next weekend.
