NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team defeated Memphis, 7-0, Friday afternoon at the Currey Tennis Center. The Commodores won all three doubles matches before claiming all six singles matches.
“I really liked today’s win,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “To be a great team, you’ve got to be like a car that’s hitting on all cylinders. You’re not going to beat great teams when a couple guys are not having a great day. Everybody today did what we could reasonably expect them to be able to do.”
Although the doubles matches got off to a slow start, Vanderbilt (4-1) found its rhythm and defeated Memphis (3-2) on all three courts. Ryan Lipman and Adam Baker held off David O’Hare and Joe Salisbury, the No. 52 doubles pair in the nation, and picked up an 8-4 win in the No. 1 match. On court two, Charlie Jones and Alex Zotov traded games with David Henry and Jordan Smith, but halted the Tigers and clinched the doubles point with an 8-6 victory. Bryant Salcedo and Alex DiValerio completed the doubles sweep with an 8-5 win in the No. 3 match.
Lipman quickly gave the Commodores a 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-2 win in the No. 1 singles match. Jones increased Vanderbilt’s lead with a 6-2, 6-3 victory on court three. Freshman Blake Bazarnik clinched the match for Vanderbilt with a win in the No. 3 match. In his first set, he trailed 5-2, but won five consecutive games to win 7-5 and picked up a 6-1 win in the following set.
The final three singles sets all concluded within five minutes of each other. Alex Zotov held off Memphis’ John Taylor for a 7-5, 6-2 win in the No. 6 match. On court five, Bryant Salcedo split the first two sets with Johnny Grimal, 6-2, 6-7(4), but was able to pick up a 6-4 win in the tiebreaker set. Baker wrapped things up for the Commodores with a tough 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Joe Salisbury in the No. 2 match.
“We’ve been stressing composure lately,” said Duvenhage. “I thought that Adam in particular did a superb job of keeping his head in this one and methodically finding a way to come back. I also thought Blake did a great job of keeping his composure when he was down 5-2 in the first set. Champions don’t get frustrated, they don’t lose their cool on the court.”
Vanderbilt travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. for its next two matches. The Commodores will face Washington on Feb. 12, followed by Michigan on Feb. 13.
