NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team earned its fifth SEC win of the season, knocking off the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs 4-3 Saturday afternoon. With the victory, VU improves to 12-4 on the season and 5-2 in conference action.
The victory was the Commodores’ third win over an Oracle/ITA top-10 opponent this season, and extended the squad’s home win streak to 30 consecutive matches.
“I love the rivalry between our two teams,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “Georgia is a hell of a team, and there’s great mutual respect between the players and the coaches. I think that’s easily an NCAA quarterfinal or semifinal match. We’ve had a couple of tough knocks this year, and I give our team a lot of credit. We had a tough weekend on the road two weeks ago, but that’s the nature of this league.”
Saturday’s top-10 showdown began with the `Dores clinching the doubles point for the second match in a row. Having experienced tough times in tandems this season, the point proved pivotal, giving the Vandy team confidence heading into singles play.
No. 58 Courtney Colton and Astra Sharma took a hard fought 6-4 loss against No. 25 Perez/Gould on court one. But the Dores’ Frances Altick and Sydney Campbell put together a nice 6-4 win on two to give VU a shot at the point. Georgina Sellyn and Fernanda Contreras rallied from a 5-3 hole, to give Vandy the doubles point by taking the tiebreaker, 7-6(3).
Heading into singles play, Vanderbilt used momentum from its doubles victories.
Contreras continued her dominance on court six with a commanding 6-1, 6-2 victory over Hannah King. The freshman owns an undefeated 5-0 SEC record at No. 6.
Georgia claimed its first point of the match, when Sellyn fell to Mariana Gould in straight sets 7-5, 6-2. The redshirt junior had control of the first set at 5-3, before UGA closed to gap.
No. 17 Altick had a solid performance on court three, playing aggressively on the attack and acting as a brick wall on defense. The senior won in straight sets against No. 27 Caroline Brinson 6-3, 6-4. Altick now own a 12-0 mark this spring, and sits just one win away from joining the Vanderbilt 100-win club.
With Vanderbilt up 3-1, Colton earned the clinch by upsetting No. 79 Silvia Garcia. The Commodore senior took the first set 7-5 after fighting back from a 4-1 deficit. Up 5-1 in the second set, the Davie, Fla. native allowed Garcia back in before closing out the match, 7-5, 6-4.
With the Vanderbilt victory clinched, the two teams finished out the remaining matches on courts one and two. No. 21 Sharma lost a tough three set match to No. 56 Kennedy Shaffer 3-6, 6-4, 1-0(2). No. 25 Campbell nearly knocked off No. 7 Ellen Perez in an intense third set, but ultimately Perez pulled ahead of Campbell’s 3-1 lead to win, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
“This is a nice step forward for us and were focusing on getting better. I think we’re going to take a little bit of a rest here in these next couple days. I told the ones that lost that `you’ve just got to be resilient. You fought hard, and lets learn from it.’ But it was a beautiful day, with a big crowd. The feel of the match was really really good. I think the spectators we’re entertained with some darn good tennis.”
Vandy continues SEC play on the road next week, taking on the No. 27 Mississippi State Bulldogs on Thursday and the No. 39 Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday.
