STARKVILLE, Miss. – No. 23 Vanderbilt recorded a huge road win over 13th-ranked Mississippi State, 4-3, Friday afternoon at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
The Commodores (12-4, 3-1) bounced back from a tough loss at Texas A&M last Friday to hand Mississippi State (12-5, 2-3) its third-straight loss.
Vanderbilt started the match by winning the doubles point on courts two and three. The Commodores had lost the doubles point in two of the first three SEC matches.
Rhys Johnson and Jeff Offerdahl recorded the first win of the day by defeating Romain Bogaerts and Pedro Dumont, 8-4, at No. 3. The Vandy duo is now 7-1 in dual play and 2-1 in SEC competition. At No. 2, Gonzales Austin and Suresh Eswaran defeated Zach White and Ethan Wilkinson, 8-6, to clinch the doubles point.
Mississippi State stormed back by winning singles at positions Nos. 2, 3 and 4, to take a 3-1 lead.
Playing at No. 2, Mississippi State’s Malte Stropp defeated Austin in straight sets, 6-0, 7-6 (5). Jordan Angus took down Offerdahl, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 3, while James Chaudry defeated Marc van der Merwe, 6-1, 6-0 in the No. 4 position.
Ryan Lipman came through with a huge win in a match that featured two top 20 players at the top position in the lineup. Lipman, who is ranked 19th, defeated 18th-ranked (Romain) Bogaerts in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. The win makes Lipman 3-1 versus ranked opponents this season, while he improved his dual record to 14-1 overall and 4-0 in SEC play.
The win also upped Lipman’s win streak to 12-consecutive matches.
Kris Yee then tied the match at 3, with his win in the No. 5 spot over White, 6-2, 7-5. Yee now has a team-high 14-match win streak and a dual record of 15-1 and 4-0 in SEC action.
With the match tied at 3, it came down to a battle at the No. 6 position, and (Rhys) Johnson would deliver. The freshman won the first set over Stefan Vinti handily, 6-1, before Vinti came back to win set two, 6-4. It came down to the tiebreak in the third set to decide the match with Johnson coming out on top, 7-6(1).
The Commodores face fourth-ranked Ole Miss Sunday at 1 p.m. before returning home for a match against Georgia next Friday, March 22, at 2 p.m. before a road match at Tennessee Sunday, March 24, at 1 p.m.
Singles Results
1. No. 19 Ryan Lipman (Vandy) def. No. 18 Romain Bogaerts (MSU) 6-3, 6-3
2. No. 59 Malte Stropp (MSU) def. No. 54 Gonzales Austin (Vandy) 6-0, 7-6(5)
3. Jordan Angus (MSU) def. Jeff Offerdahl (Vandy) 6-3, 6-3
4. James Chaudry (MSU) def. Marc van der Merwe (Vandy) 6-1, 6-0
5. Kris Yee (Vandy) def. Zach White (MSU) 6-2, 7-5
6. Rhys Johnson (Vandy) def. Stefan Vinti (MSU) 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(1)
Doubles Results
1. No. 14 Angus/Stropp (MSU) vs. Lipman/van der Merwe (Vanderbilt) 7-6, unfinished
2. Austin/Eswaran (Vanderbilt) def. White/Wilkinson (MSU) 8-6
3. Johnson/Offerdahl (Vanderbilt) def. Bogaerts/Dumont (MSU) 8-4
Order of Finish
Singles: 4,2,3,1,5,6
Doubles: 3,2
