FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The 19th-ranked Vanderbilt women’s tennis team battled through stiff winds during doubles play en route to a 4-0 win over 12th-seeded Mississippi State in the first round of the 2009 SEC Tournament at the Billingsley Tennis Center Thursday. With the win, the fifth seeded Commodores (11-7, 6-4 SEC) will advance to play fourth-seeded Florida in tomorrow’s quarterfinals.
VU took an early 1-0 lead after they survived a hard fought doubles point from MSU (10-10, 1-9 SEC). With winds gusting up to 25 mph, both teams took a while adjusting to the conditions. Vanderbilt’s pair of Catherine Newman and Chelsea Preeg won the first doubles match of the day, posting an 8-4 win over Mississippi State’s team of Natalya Mayuk and Olesya Tsigvintseva. Newman and Preeg improved to 9-7 overall and 8-7 in dual play. The remaining two doubles matches went back and forth and stayed that way until they went into tiebreakers.
Trailing 4-1, Vanderbilt’s No. 3 doubles tandem of Courtney and Keilly Ulery staged a great comeback by winning five straight games to take a 6-4 lead over MSU’s pair of Radka Ferancova and Valeriya Makarycheva. After MSU took the next two matches and taking a 7-6 lead, VU’s pair found themselves down 40-15 and on the brink of losing the doubles point to the Lady Bulldogs. However, the Ulery sisters refused to go down and they retook the momentum of the match by coming back to win the final two games of the set and more importantly clinching the doubles point for the `Dores.
“We were very fortunate to win the doubles point today,” said head coach Geoff Macdonald. “I thought Mississippi State played great doubles today and the point could have went either way. I think Mississippi State proved today that they are worthy of a NCAA berth. This league is extremely competitive from top to bottom and they deserve to be in the NCAA tournament.”
Following doubles play, SEC tournament officials moved the singles matches inside the Dills Indoor Tennis Center due to high winds.
The Commodores came out of the gates firing on all cylinders during singles play as VU took four of the six first sets. Leading 1-0, Newman showed why she was All-SEC for the third consecutive season by cruising through MSU’s Banikova in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1, giving the `Dores a 2-0 lead. Newman’s win over Banikova marked her 20th singles win of the season and eighth in dual play.
VU’s Courtney Ulery inched the Commodores closer to clinching the match by defeating Makarycheva in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2 for her 11th win of the spring.
Twenty minutes later, Keilly Ulery clinched the match for the Commodores, recording a 6-0, 6-4 win against MSU’s Ferancova. After the match had been clinched, Coach Macdonald commended the Commodores for its effort in singles.
“I thought Catherine and Courtney played great singles matches today. Those two set the tone for the rest of our team.”
Vanderbilt will look to get even with Florida tomorrow after the Gators defeated the Commodores 5-2 on March 8 in Nashville. Tomorrow’s match with UF will get underway starting with doubles at 10:30 a.m.
“Florida beat us during the regular season and they are a very good team,” Macdonald said. “I think tomorrow will be a heck of match.”
Live stats of Friday’s top-25 dual between the Gators and Commodores will be available via arkansasrazorbacks.com or by clicking here.
No. 19 Vanderbilt 4 , No. 49 Mississippi State 0
Singles Results
1. No. 61 Catherine Newman (VU) def. Martina Banikova (MSU) 6-0, 6-1
2. No. 57 Jackie Wu (VU) vs. Olesya Tsigvintseva (MSU) 6-2, 5-2, unf.
3. Keilly Ulery (VU) def. Radka Ferancova (MSU) 6-0, 6-4
4. Chelsea Preeg (VU) vs. Elna de Villiers (MSU) 3-6, 3-2
5. Heather Steinbauer (VU) vs. Daniela Juskova (MSU) 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 unf.
6. Courtney Ulery (VU) def. Valeriya Makarycheva (MSU) 6-2, 6-2
order of finish: 1, 6, 3*
Doubles Results
1. No. 55 Banikova / de Villiers (MSU) def. No. 38 Steinbauer / Wu (VU) 9-8 (7-2)
2. Newman / Preeg (VU) def. Mayuk / Tsigvintseva (MSU) 8-4
3. Ulery, C. / Ulery, K. (VU) def. Ferancova / Juskova (MSU) 9-8 (8-6)
order of finish: 2, 1, 3
