NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No. 6 Vanderbilt women’s tennis rallied to take down No. 49 Ole Miss on Friday at the Currey Tennis Center, 4-3.
“The level of play today was extremely high — five three-set matches, that’s a really close match. We came within a whisker of losing but we showed tremendous toughness to pull off the win,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald.
The Commodores wasted no time in commanding the doubles point over the Rebels to earn a 1-0 lead.
Dore pair Summer Dvorak and Christina Rosca dominated the court over Rebel duo Cameron Kriscunas and Tereza Janatova, holding the pair to three games to secure the Commodores’ first doubles victory, 6-3.
Clinching the doubles point, Emma Kurtz and Emily Smith authored a comeback to take down Ole Miss pair Alexa Bortles and Sabrina Machalova, 6-4.
Making a comeback, Ole Miss’ Tereza Janatova tied the match for the Rebels with a win over freshman Carolyn Campana, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
With a 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 victory over No. 63 Georgia Drummy, Ole Miss’s Sabrina Machalova bounced back after a 5-7 loss in the first set to take down Drummy, 5-7, 7-6, 6-1 to put the Rebels in the lead 2-1.
Conquering her third consecutive match victory, No. 14 Rosca stormed back to take the match over Ole Miss’s Anna Vrbenska after dropping the first set, 2-6. Rosca took down Vrbenska in the second set tiebreak, 7-6 (5) to force a third set. In the final set, Rosca held the Rebel to one game to tie the match for the Dores.
Pushing the Commodores into the lead, senior Dvorak earned a 6-4 victory in the first set but fell short in the second set, 6-7 (6). In the third set, Dvorak shut out Ole Miss’s Alexa Bortles, 6-0, to put the Dores up, 3-2.
The Rebels secured a third victory with Tea Jandric upsetting senior Contreras in three sets, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 to once again tie the match.
With one remaining court, the match came down to senior Smith battling against Ole Miss’ Allie Sanford.
Smith took an early lead in the first set to take down Sanford, 6-3. Looking to clinch the match on senior day, the senior shut out Sanford in the second set to win the match for the Commodores, 4-3.
The Commodores travel to No.17 Tennessee on Friday and face No. 1 Georgia on Sunday as they close out the regular season.
Follow along with the Dores on the road by following @VandyWTennis on Twitter and Instagram.
