No. 16 Vanderbilt Commodores
vs.
No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers / No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs
UT: March 26 • 3 p.m. CT | UGA: March 28 • 1 p.m. CT
Senior Weekend
- Finishing its 2021 home slate this weekend, No. 16 Vanderbilt will host 19th-ranked Tennessee on Friday before holding Senior Day on Sunday afternoon against No. 3 Georgia.
- Friday’s match is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT with Sunday’s match slated for a 1 p.m. first serve.
- Due to COVID-19 protocols and social distancing guidelines, fans are not permitted to attend this weekend’s match at Currey Tennis Center.
- Fans can follow the match via live stream, live scoring or on Twitter by following @VandyWTennis.
National Rankings
- This week in the Oracle/ITA national rankings, Vanderbilt checked in at No. 16 in the nation.
- The Commodores also checked in at No. 16 in the first release of the Tennis Channel/USTA College Tennis Top 25.
- In addition to the team ranking, fifth-year senior Christina Rosca checked in at No. 54 in the country this week in the ITA singles rankings. The release is the first release of the poll during the regular season thus far.
- In the ITA doubles poll, Emma Kurtz is ranked with a pair of partners. She and Holly Staff checked in at No. 31 in the nation while she and Marcella Cruz are No. 56 in the country.
Elite Ranks
- With a three-set victory Jan. 17 against Western Kentucky, Rosca earned her 100th career singles victory.
- In addition to her 100th singles win, she also earned her 200th career win across singles and doubles Feb. 22 against LSU.
- To date throughout her career, she owns an overall 110-51 singles record while going 11-3 thus far this spring season.
- Combining singles and doubles, Rosca is 206-112 in her career as a Commodore thanks to her 96-61 record in doubles play.
Closing In
- Now with 99 doubles victories in her career at Vanderbilt, Emma Kurtz is one win away from reaching 100.
- The fifth-year senior holds a career mark of 178-124 across 302 career singles and doubles decisions in black and gold.
Looking Astern
- Vanderbilt dropped a 4-1 decision last time out to No. 27 Texas A&M on Saturday.
- The Dores won a hard-fought doubles point and were close on numerous singles courts to mounting a comeback, but the Aggies got a key break to close out the 4-1 win before the comeback could materialize.
A New Captain
- Last summer, Aleke Tsoubanos took over as the program’s head coach after 13 seasons on staff as an assistant coach.
- With Tsoubanos taking over, Geoff Macdonald remains on staff as the program’s assistant coach.
- One of the most-respected college coaching duos in the country, Tsoubanos and Macdonald led the Commodores to the program’s first national championship in 2015. The pair has also ushered the Dores to 248 wins, 12 NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back SEC Tournament and regular-season titles in 2017-18.
- Tsoubanos’s first dual-match victory came Jan. 17 in a 7-0 sweep of Western Kentucky and her first win over a ranked opponent came when the Dores beat N0. 9 Georgia Tech on the road Feb. 12.
Badges of Honor
- Holly Staff earned the first SEC Freshman of the Week honor on Jan. 28.
- Cruz then went on to earn SEC Newcomer of the Week on March 17 after starting Vanderbilt’s comeback to beat No. 31 Kentucky 4-3.
A Look Back at 2019-20
- Last season, Vanderbilt went 7-3 across 10 matches with a 3-1 mark in conference play before the remainder of the year was canceled due to COVID-19. Two of those losses were by 4-3 scorelines against Arizona State and No. 36 LSU.
- Rosca won each of her last five matches of the season, finishing the spring campaign with an 8-2 record and a 6-1 mark at No. 1 singles.
- Cruz also had a strong debut season, going 5-1 on the year – all at No. 5 singles – before the shutdown.
On The Radar
- Out on the road for the final four matches of the regular season, Vanderbilt will head east to South Carolina and Florida next week. The Dores will first meet the Gamecocks on Thursday at 4 p.m. CT before making their way down to Gainesville to meet the Gators at 10 a.m. CT on Saturday.
