NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The reigning national champion women’s tennis team accomplished a lot of firsts last season, and established yet another against No. 8 Stanford on Saturday.
For the first time in program history, the No. 1 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team defeated the Cardinal 4-1, with a huge rally after dropping the doubles point on courts one and three.
“I thought Stanford played a great doubles point,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “I thought we played a little tight and we tried a couple of different doubles partnerships. It’s still early in the year, so our doubles haven’t gelled yet, but Ellie (Yates) and Astra (Sharma) played exceptionally well. I give Stanford full credit.”
With the doubles point awarded to Stanford the Commodores pick themselves right back up giving a relentless effort in singles, taking four of five first sets.
“I thought we did a superb job in first sets after the disappointment of losing the doubles point. Sometimes that can bleed over into singles, but that didn’t happen at all. In fact, I thought we got up and put some scoreboard pressure on them early. We didn’t play afraid of oh what if we lose. I give them (the team) a ton of credit.
In front of a packed crowd inside the Currey Tennis Center, Vanderbilt’s No. 24 Sydney Campbell raced off to quickly even the score to 1-all with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against No. 39 Caroline Doyle on court two.
Both Georgina Sellyn on court five and Astra Sharma on three pulled out tough 6-4 first set victories, only to handily defeat their opponents, Yee and Hardebeck, in perfect form; 6-4, 6-0.
“We had a little bit of momentum in the second set. It’s early in the year for Stanford and they’ve got some young players. We talk a lot about how it can’t be all about the first set. A lot of tennis is letting go of something negative and seeing what you can do right now and I thought we did a really good job at that.”
Senior Courtney Colton clinched the huge win for the team, defeating the Card’s Melissa Lord; 6-2, 6-1. With the match clinched, Frances Atick’s battle on court one was stopped, but the Monroe, La. put up a fight to lead 5-1 in the second set after dropping the first 6-4.
“It was a team effort and is great momentum going into team national indoors up in Madison, Wisc.. I’m so proud of them. We’ve stopped trying to ease into the year. It’s about getting better throughout the year and not about right now. We’re ranked number one, but we’re not putting a lot of stock into it, we’ve still got a lot to improve.”
Results:
Doubles:
1) No. 10 Taylor Davidson/Carolina Doyle (SU) def. No. 11 Courtney Colton/Sydney Campbell (VU); 6-2
2) Ellie Yates/Astra Sharma (VU) def. Melissa Lord/Kimberly Yee (SU); 6-1
3) Krista Hardebeck/Caroline Lampl (SU) def. Fernanda Contreras/Frances Altick (VU); 6-2
Finish; 2, 1, 3*
Singles:
1) No. 20 Taylor Davidson (SU) led No. 15 Frances Altick (VU); 6-4, 1-5
2) No. 24 Sydney Campbell (VU) def. No. 39 Caroline Doyle (SU); 6-1, 6-2
3) No. 34 Astra Sharma (VU) def. Krista Hardebeck (SU); 6-4, 6-0
4) Courtney Colton (VU) def. Melissa Lord (SU); 6-3, 6-1
5) Georgina Sellyn (VU) def. Kimberly Yee (SU); 6-4, 6-0
6) Fernanda Contreras (VU) vs. Caroline Lampl (SU); Not Started
Finish; 2, 5, 3, 4*
