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Vanderbilt Wins Four Flights at Furman Fall Classic 10/3/2005 Greenville, SC — The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team had a pretty good Sunday, taking home three flight championships on the final day of the Furman Fall Classic at the Mickel Tennis Center. In flight one sophomore Taka Bertrand (Great Falls, Va.) defeated Penn State’s Sasha Abraham 6-2, 6-0, while in flight five freshman Maggie Yahnar (Las Vegas, Nev.) downed Tennessee’s Stephanie Harris 6-2, 6-3. Vanderbilt’s third win was in flight six where sophomore Caroline Ferrell (Blythewood, S.C.) won 6- 4, 6-0 over Furman’s Jacqueline Eckert. “I think every one of our girls had some serious, good wins against five of the teams that finished in the Top 20 last year,” said head coach Geoff MacDonald. “Taka Bertrand had a fantastic tournament winning both the singles and doubles at the top flight. Our freshmen played extremely well. I think we only lost four matches the whole tournament, and two of those were withdrawals with injury.” On the doubles side of the tournament Vanderbilt captured anothered flight title. In flight one the Commodores’ junior Amanda Fish (Scituate, Mass.) and Bertrand downed Tennessee’s Ghizela Schutte and Melissa Schaub 8-3. Fish competed in flight one singles as well, but was forced to withdraw her second match against PSU’s Abraham before Bertrand beat her in the flight one title round. Sophomore Amanda Taylor (Richland, Wash.) dropped her first match of the tourney in flight two, but then won her next match to advance to the finals in the consolation bracket. Taylor was also forced to withdraw from that match with injury. Both Fish (stomach pull) and Taylor (wrist) are expected to recover soon. Freshman Courtney Ulery (Wellington, Fla.) also dropped her initial match, but then won the next two to capture the flight three consolation title with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Furman’s Marti Morris. Freshman Liberty Sveke (Sarasota, Fla.) also had a sucessful tournament in the flight seven round robin. She won all three of her matches to post the best record among the six competing student-athletes. In her first two she lost only two games winning 6-0, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-0. She won the third match against Penn State’s Dorothy Dohanies 7-5, 6-4 to remain undefeated. In the doubles, Fish and Bertrand simply dominated their opponents, outscoring them 24-6 in their three victories en route to the flight one doubles title. The Commodores also won two doubles consolation titles. In flight two Sveke and Taylor fell to a Furman squad 9- 8 (3) before winning their final two matches by a score of 8-3. The freshmen tandem of Ulery and Yahner also dropped its first decision, but the duo rebounded and won their last two matches 8-2 and 8-1. Ferrell teamed up with Tennessee’s Stephanie Harris to win both of their doubles matches in a flight four round robin. “It was a great start to our season,” MacDonald said. “The fall season is about improving and learning and I think we did that this weekend. We learned a lot as a team and I think our freshmen learned what NCAA college tennis is all about.’ Fish and Bertrand are already back in action at the ITA All-American Tournament in California. The two are the only Commodores ranked in the preseason poll, Fish at No. 17 and Bertrand is No. 41. |
