The second-ranked women’s tennis team defeated 20th-ranked Kentucky 4-1 in an important conference victory. Vanderbilt moves to 15-3 on the season and 8-1 in SEC play. The victory was the team’s 10th this season over a top-25 squad.
Vanderbilt earned the point for winning two of the three double matches, with the third stopped before completion.
Amanda Meyer and Christina Rosca defeated Kentucky’s Brianna Tulloch and Mami Adachi 6-2 to claim the first doubles victory for the Commodores. Minutes later, Summer Dvorak and Fernanda Contreras won 6-3 over Justina Mikulskyte and Diana Tkachenko.
The final doubles match was halted at 4-3 with Vanderbilt’s Emily Smith and Emma Kurtz leading Lesedi Jacobs and Emily Fanning.
In singles play, Vanderbilt only needed to win three of the six matches to clinch a victory.
Kentucky’s Lesedi Jacob’s won the first doubles match over Emily Smith 6-2, 6-2. Smith fell behind early in the first set and never recovered.
Summer Dvorak gave Vanderbilt its first singles win of the day with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Brianna Tulloch.
Shortly after, Fernanda Contreras delivered the second singles point with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 win over Justina Mikulskyte on center court. The fifth-ranked Contreras’ powerful serve put her in control for the entire match.
By this point, Christina Rosca and Emily Fanning had just finished up their first set. The set was back and forth and extremely tight. Tied 5-5, Rosca had a shot to win the crucial 11th game when she was up 40-15, but Fanning won three straight points to take the game.
Rosca won the next game to tie the set up at 6-6. The tiebreaker was just as close as the rest of the set. Rosca finally won the tiebreaker 11-9 to win the first set 7-6. The crowd roared as she won a tough set point.
On Court Three, freshman Commodore Amanda Meyer was down 3-4 in first set before she broke Adachi’s serve to tie up the set at 4-4. The break was a turning point in the set because Meyer won next game and battled back from down 40-15 in the following game to take the first set 6-4.
Meyer’s momentum did not carry into the second set. Adachi quickly took the second set 6-1.
On Court Four, Vanderbilt’s Emma Kurtz lost 6-3 to Diana Tkachenko, but Kurtz came back in second set to win also by a score of 6-3.
Before Meyer or Kurtz could complete their third sets, Christina Rosca delivered the clinching point with a commanding 6-2 second set victory to win 7-6 (11-9), 6-2. She showed no signs of exhaustion after a long first set.
No. 14 Astra Sharma, who was the SEC Player of the Week last week, did not play in the match.
Vanderbilt hosts Texas A&M on Thursday afternoon.
