ANN AROBOR, Mich. – For the second day in a row, the Commodores faced a top-25 team, and for the second day in a row, the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team came out victorious. On Sunday afternoon, Vanderbilt claimed the doubles point and won four of six singles matches to defeat No. 22 Michigan, 5-2.
“It was a great weekend,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “I think we got a couple coming of age wins and I’m very proud of how this team played.”
The afternoon started off with an 8-4 victory by Charlie Jones and Alex Zotov in the No. 2 doubles match. The 28th ranked pair of Evan King and Jason Jung evened things up with an 8-3 win over Adam Baker and Ryan Lipman in the No. 1 match.
The doubles point came down to the No. 3 match, where Bryant Salcedo and Alex DiValerio battled with Chris Cha and Shaun Bernstein. With the match tied at 2-2, Salcedo and DiValerio won four consecutive games to take a 6-2 lead, but Cha and Bernstein responded by winning the next five games to take a 7-6 lead. The pairs traded points until it was tied 8-8, and then Salcedo and DiValerio eventually won the tiebreak set, 14-12, to give the Commodores a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.
“The doubles point was unbelievable,” said Duvenhage. “That’s what college tennis is all about: two great teams battling it out toe to toe.”
Vanderbilt continued its winning way in singles, with Blake Bazarnik and Zotov winning at the Nos. 4 and 6 spots, respectively. Michigan cut into Vanderbilt’s 3-0 lead with a win in the No. 2 match, but Jones quickly picked up the third singles victory, clinching the match for the Commodores.
“It was a tight match,” said Jones of his win on court three. “I have learned to stick to the process and the rest will take care of itself.”
Vanderbilt and Michigan split the final two matches, with Salcedo picking up a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(0) win in the No. 5 match. Evan King, who Lipman defeated in the opening round of the ITA National Indoor Championships in November, avenged that loss and beat Lipman, 7-6(3), 4-6, 1-0(10-8) in the No. 1 match.
The match will be shown on tape-delay by the Big Ten Network on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 9 a.m. CT.
The Commodores are on the road again next weekend with a match at Northwestern on Friday at 6 p.m. CT.
