NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Just as the previous three home matches, the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team posted a 7-0 victory Friday evening over No. 44 Indiana. The Commodores won two of three doubles matches before sweeping all six singles matches.
“I told the guys before the match that if we didn’t play a really good match, this team would beat us,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “I looked at Indiana’s results and I thought that they were not even remotely a 44th ranked team. To beat them 7-0 is a great effort. The guys did a great job today.”
All three doubles matches were closely contested, but Bryant Salcedo and Blake Bazarnik got things started off for the Commodores (8-1) with an 8-5 win in the No. 3 match. Charlie Jones and Alex Zotov battled with Indiana’s Stephen Vogl and Josh MacTaggart, but eventually fell 9-7.
With the No. 1 match left to determine the doubles point, Ryan Lipman and Adam Baker played Santiago Gruter and Jeremy Langer to a tiebreaker set, and came out with a 9-8(5) victory to give the Commodores the advantage heading into singles play.
Jones increased Vanderbilt’s lead with a quick 6-4, 6-1 win in the No. 3 match. Jones has now won his last six matches. Bazarnik, Lipman and Baker all picked up victories within minutes of each other, clinching the win for Vanderbilt and adding an insurance point. After dropping his first set, 3-6, Bazarnik blanked Claes Goransson, 6-0, to even the match. In the tiebreaker set, Bazarnik battled to a 7-6(4) win to claim the No. 4 match.
Lipman clinched the match victory for Vanderbilt with a 6-3, 7-6(0) win over Jeremy Langer on court one. Almost immediately after, Baker wrapped up a 7-6(6), 6-3 win in the No. 2 match. Salcedo and Alex Zotov concluded the sweep with three-set victories. Salcedo dropped his first set, 3-6, but bounced back with 6-3, 7-6(5) victories in the next two sets. Zotov had the exact same scores in his first two sets, and won the super tiebreaker set, 10-8, to pick up the win.
“We played really well against a really a good team this evening,” said senior Adam Baker. “To beat Indiana 7-0 is quite an accomplishment. We’ve dominated at home this year, and we’d like to keep that going on Sunday against North Carolina.”
The Commodores return to action Sunday afternoon against North Carolina. Live stats for the match, which begins at 1 p.m., will be available . Also, follow the team on Twitter @VandyMensTennis.
