Oct. 10, 2015
TULSA, Okla. – After defeating a top-30 opponent Friday in the first round of the 2015 Saint Francis Health System ITA All-American Championship singles consolation, Vanderbilt sophomore Daniel Valent defeated Alabama’s Lovett before being eliminated in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
Much like yesterday’s round of 16 match, Valent started out slow dropping his first set against a strong opponent in Alabama’s No. 96 Korey Lovett. The Zurich, Switzerland native battled hard the next two sets pulling out a tight 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory.
With momentum on his side and coming off a competitive match, the sophomore Commodore looked to his second match of the day against another SEC opponent in UGA senior Austin Smith.
While Valent stayed toe-to-toe with the first team all-SECer, Smith took the first set tiebreaker 7-6 (1). But Valent’s quarterfinal appearance was a tale of two halves, as Smith swept the Commodore to win the second set 6-0.
“Danny won a good match against Lovett from Alabama this morning,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “Lovett played No. 1 for them last year. Danny went on to play a good first set against Smith from Georgia who is one of the top-10 players in the nation, but the second set was not up to his standards. He’s proving that he can beat the top players in the country, we just have to improve in a few areas.”
After Duvenhage and Valent return home to Nashville, the Commodores have a few days of practice before the team heads to Knoxville, Tenn. for next weekend’s ITA regionals.
