The No. 26 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team just finished their first tournament of the year, competing in the Debbie Southern Furman Fall Invitational at Furman University in South Carolina. The field included 6 of the top 30 and 10 of the top 70 ranked teams from last year’s end; No. 3 North Carolina, No. 4 Duke, No. 15 Ohio State, No. 23 Wake Forest, No. 28 South Carolina, No. 32 Georgia Tech, No. 38 Furman, No. 63 Clemson and No. 68 Mississippi State. The team as a whole compiled a 13-8 record in singles and a 5-4 record in doubles.
For the Commodores, the story of the invitational was their freshmen: Sonya Macavei and Bridget Stammel. The girls that make up Vanderbilt’s sixth overall recruiting class went a combined 9-3 overall—6-0 in singles, respectively winning the fourth and fifth flight singles titles. Stammel was undefeated in both singles at the fourth flight and doubles at the third flight, taking down the likes of 28th-ranked Carson Tanguilig from North Carolina and No. 57 Brianna Shvetz from Duke.
Macavei, coming off an appearance at the Junior U.S. Open, went 3-0 at 5 singles, dropping only eight games over her last five sets.
Not to be forgotten, redshirt freshman Celia-Bella Mohr picked up her first collegiate victory on day one, taking down Ohio State’s Shelly Bereznyak. She also took a set off of the second-ranked girl in the nation, South Carolina’s Sarah Hamner, before falling in a tight three-set bout. Mohr was thrust into the 1 singles position for her first collegiate action, in part because senior Anna Ross did not make the trip. The senior out of Charleston, South Carolina, is the top-ranked singles player on Vanderbilt’s team at No. 40 nationally. She partnered with No. 64 Holly Staff, together comprising the seventh-ranked doubles team in the nation. Compiling a winning record against the likes of those teams without a player of Ross’s caliber is nothing to scoff at.
Other notable results include junior and 76th-ranked Anessa Lee going 4-1 on the weekend at 3 singles and 1 doubles, with her only loss being to Wake Forest’s Anna Brylin, and sophomore Amy Stevens winning two matches at 7 singles.
Overall, it was a successful weekend for the Commodores. They will look to build on this momentum from their young stars as they prepare for the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina, on Oct. 1st.
