EVANSTON, Ill. – The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team showed today that they are one of the nation’s top teams as they battled against No. 2 Northwestern and No. 45 DePaul in singles and doubles on Saturday. A day after winning three of five doubles matches against DePaul, the Commodores completed a 4-0 sweep in doubles against the second-ranked Wildcats on Saturday. VU went 5-3 in doubles and 2-1 in singles on Saturday.
“Today was a great competitive day for our team and it was a very comforting experience,” head coach Geoff Macdonald said. “I am really pleased of how the team has competed the last two days. We are playing against two very good teams in DePaul and Northwestern and they are both very well coached so this is a great test for our team and so far I am very pleased.”
VU’s sophomore duo of Chelsea Preeg and Jackie Wu earned their second and third wins of the weekend with a pair of wins over two teams from Northwestern. The Commodore tandem defeated NU’s Lauren Lui and Linda Abu Mushrefova, 8-3 before topping NU’s pair of Brittany Wowchuk and Elena Chernyakova by a score of 8-3. The 40th-ranked team of Preeg and Wu has now won 10 of its last 11 matches dating back to October 22, 2009.
Catherine Newman and Erica Robertson paired up for the first time this weekend to take down Northwestern’s team of Lui and Abu Mushrefova (9-7) while VU’s Keilly Ulery and Rachael Dillon teamed up to knock off NU’s Kate Turvy and Stacey Lee, 8-5. Earlier in the day, VU’s Dillon and Ulery took down DePaul’s duo of Anna Redecsi and Cali Gustafson by a score 8-3.
The `Dores kept the momentum they gained in the morning during the doubles matches and carried it over to the three singles matches with the Wildcats in the afternoon. The Commodores went 2-1 against the Cats as Ulery and Dillon captured big wins vs. their respected opponents.
Dillon, a junior transfer from Cal-Berkeley, took down NU’s Stacey Lee in straight sets for her first win as Commodore. After winning the first set in a tiebreaker (8-6), the Dublin, Ireland native swept the second set, 6-0 to earn the win.
In the final match of the night, VU’s Ulery battled back-and-forth in a tight match with Northwestern’s Lauren Lui. After earning a 7-5 decision in the opening set, Ulery found herself up 5-love in the second set before Lui rallied to knot the match at five-all and forcing a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker remained within one point the whole time before Lui pulled out the tiebreaker (13-11) and forcing a third and final set. Ulery refocused and bounced back in the third set (W, 6-4) to earn the hard fought win.
“Keilly’s match was a prize fight and it was a beautiful match between two great players,” Macdonald said. “It was a great way to end a successful day of tennis.”
Competition of the final day of the Wildcat Invitational will resume at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Singles Results
Keilly Ulery (VU) def. Lauren Lui (Northwestern), 7-5, 6-7 (11), 6-4
Rachael Dillon (VU) def Stacey Lee (Northwestern) 7-6 (6), 6-0
Brittany Wowchuk (Northwestern) def. Erica Robertson (VU), 6-1, 6-2
Doubles Results
Wu/Preeg (VU) def. Lui/Abu Mushrefova (Northwestern) 8-3
Wu/Preeg (VU) def. Wowchuk/Chernyakova (Northwestern) 8-3
Newman/Robertson (VU) def. Lui/Abu Mushrefova (Northwestern) 9-7
Dillon/Ulery (VU) def. Turvy/Lee (Northwestern) 8-5
Salkovic/McKnight (DePaul) def. Newman/Robertson (VU) 8-5
Dillon/Ulery (VU) def. Redecsi/Gustafson (DePaul) 8-3
Gambrell/Zmak (DePaul) def. Blatt/Gornet (VU) 8-4
Gustafson/Zmak (DePaul) def. Blatt/Gornet (VU) 8-3
