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| Amanda Taylor won her first career start at the No. 1 singles Friday to help VU record a season opening 7-0 sweep over the Louisville Cardinals. |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The No. 12 Vanderbilt tennis team (1-0) opened their season with a 7-0 sweep over Louisville (0-1) at the Currey Tennis Center Friday night.
Despite missing two of the team’s highest ranked players in the singles contest (24 Catherine Newman, 26 Amanda Fish), the Commodores took the victory with straight set wins across the board.
“We have a deep lineup,” Vanderbilt Head Coach Geoff Macdonald said. “You have to have one to be successful. You want to have confidence in all eight players and develop them.”
The Commodores notched the doubles point with a win by junior Taka Bertrand and freshman Catherine Newman (8-4) over Louisville’s Jo Ann VanAard and Bianca Gorbea. Vanderbilt’s Courtney Ulery and Liberty Sveke had a rocky start at No. 1 doubles and dropped the 8-3 contest to UL’s Robyn White and Natalie Laskowski.
Louisville forfeited one doubles and one singles contest, putting the Commodores up 2-0 at the start of the singles round. Taka Bertrand quickly put the Commodores up 3-0 with a 6-1, 6-0 win over VanAard at No. 2 singles. Caroline Ferrell clinched the Vanderbilt win a few minutes later with a straight set victory (6-2, 6-2) over Natalia Baez.
After taking the first set 6-0, Amanda Taylor fought through a 3-0 deficit to defeat White 6-4 in her first career No. 1 start.
Sophomores Courtney Ulery and Liberty Sveke struggled in the first sets at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, respectively. After trailing to Laskowski throughout their first meeting, Ulery fought back to take the win 7-5, followed by a decisive 6-2 win in the second set. Sveke also battled with Gorbea, but took the win in a tiebreaker (3), followed by 6-2 victory.
“It was a very competitive match,” Macdonald said. “And sometimes if you haven’t played competitively in a while you forget things, like making those quick important decisions and you make a lot of mistakes but they get worked out in a couple of weeks.”
The Commodores will return to the court Sunday to take on East Tennessee State University at noon. The teams recently met in the first round of the 2006 NCAA tournament, when Vanderbilt defeated the Bucs 4-0.
Results
Vanderbilt 7, Louisville 0
Doubles
1. Natalie Laskowski/Robyn White (UL) d. Courtney Ulery/Liberty Sveke 8-3
2. Taka Bertrand/Catherine Newman (VU) d. Jo Ann VanAard/Bianca Gorbea 8-4
3. UL Forfeit
Singles
1. Amanda Taylor (VU) d. White 6-0, 6-4
2. Bertrand (VU) d. Van Aard 6-1, 6-0
3. Ulery (VU) d. Laskowski 7-5, 6-2
4. Sveke (VU) d. Gorbea 7-6(3), 6-2
5. Caroline Ferrell (VU) d. Natalia Baez 6-2, 6-2
6. UL Forfeit
