BATON ROUGE, La. — No. 45 ranked junior Valeria Ray notched two wins across singles and doubles on Thursday as the Vanderbilt women’s tennis team moved on at the ITA South Sectional Championships hosted by LSU.
Play began with Ray, the No. 1 overall singles seed, facing No. 110 Patricija Paukstyte of Georgia. The Dore made quick work of her Bulldog counterpart, clinching the match 6-4, 6-2. Ray followed suite in doubles alongside senior Bridget Stammel, the No. 37 ranked pair, against Louisville’s Alice Otis and Lika Persypkina. After suffering a 6-4 loss in the first set, Vanderbilt returned the favor in the second 7-6 (3). Ray and Stammel took full control of the momentum in the super tiebreaker, pulling away 10-4 to seal the match.
The singles round of 16 is slated for an 11 a.m. start with Ray in a matchup versus Florida’s Nikola Daubnerova. Doubles play is set to follow afterwards at 4 p.m. Ray and Stammel take on Amina Salibayeva and Addison Bowman of Alabama. The Sectional draw and results are available on the ITA tournament page. Live streaming is available online and live stats are accessible here.
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Day 1 Results:
SINGLES
No. 45 Ray (Vanderbilt) def. No. 110 Paukstyte (Georgia) 6-4, 6-2
DOUBLES
No. 37 Ray/Stammel def. Otis/Persypkina (Louisville) 4-6, 7-6 (3), 10-4
Dilek/Dong (Georgia) def. No. 43 Pearce/Yamakita 6-4, 6-2
