NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team earned its fifth top 25 victory Sunday afternoon with a 5-2 win over No. 23 Ole Miss.
With the win, the Commodores improve to 9-4 overall and 4-0 in Southeastern Conference play.
“I was very impressed with Mississippi today,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “It was a competitive and entertaining SEC match. Overall, I thought we competed really hard at every position.”
VU began the match clinching the doubles point over the Rebels with victories on courts one and two. No. 20 Astra Sharma and Emily Smith improved to 6-1 on the season with a 6-3 win over No. 33 Arianne Hartono and Anna Vrbenska. The Commodores’ Sydney Campbell and Emma Kurtz came through with the clinch, downing Alexa Bortles and Natalie Suk in a close 6-4 contest.
Vanderbilt took four first sets and earned three of its singles points in straight-set victories.
Ole Miss leveled the score in singles play, as Suk defeated No. 8 Campbell, 6-3, 6-4. No. 5 Sharma added her sixth ranked win and 80th career win to her arsenal, defeating No. 47 Hartono on court one, 6-2, 7-5, for the 2-1 Vanderbilt lead.
Georgina Sellyn powered through a gritty match on court three to claim a win over Zalina Khairudinova, 6-4, 7-5 on deuce match point. The victory was Sellyn’s 75th career Commodore win.
“I give a lot of credit to Georgina Sellyn,” Macdonald said. “She’s played some of the best players on other teams and has had some close losses. But she came through today and earned a great win against a good player.”
After dropping her first set on court five to Tea Jandric, 2-6, Fernanda Contreras took her sixth victory of the dual season (6-1) to clinch the Commodores’ win, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Following the clinch, No. 65 Christina Rosca suffered the second loss of the outing for the black and gold. Anna Vrbenska defeated the freshman in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Vandy’s final win came in a dominant straight-set victory by Emily Smith on court six. The Birmingham, England native earned her first SEC victory as a Commodore over Alexa Bortles, 6-0, 6-3.
The Commodores will be on the road this upcoming weekend, traveling to Lexington, Ky. to take on the Wildcats for a 4 pm CT match on Saturday.
