One week after losing a heartbreaker to SMU, Vanderbilt looked to get back in the win column at the ITA Kickoff weekend. Unfortunately for the Commodores, they opened competition with a tough loss on Friday to Tennessee with a final score of 4-3. Vanderbilt started off strong with a victory in doubles by Bridget Stammel and Valeria Ray. This win was followed by a Holly Staff and Sonya Macavei defeat, but the Commodores were able to win the doubles point over the Volunteers after a 6-4 victory by Célia-Belle Mohr and Anessa Lee.
In singles play, however, Mohr and Lee picked up the only two Commodore victories in straight set wins. Stammel, Ray and Macavei played into three sets, but all three ultimately lost. These defeats combined with Staff’s loss put the Volunteers over the top for Friday’s competition.
“Singles was a bit of a tale of two halves,” head coach Aleke Tsoubanos said. “We came firing out of the gates and had some pretty big leads on four out of six courts, but good teams don’t go away and a couple of those leads were turned around. We found ourselves in some three set matches that we weren’t able to pull out.”
On Saturday, Vanderbilt competed against Miami in the consolation round of the ITA Kickoff weekend. The Commodores had previously played the Hurricanes in the Miami Spring Invite, where Vanderbilt was defeated in four of seven singles matches and two of three doubles matches. Saturday’s performance, however, was a different story as the Commodores soared to a 4-0 victory.
In doubles, Stammel and Ray collected the first victory 6-1, and Lee and Mohr followed with a 6-2 win. Vanderbilt’s third duo of Staff and Macavei were up 5-2 when play was halted with the Commodores having already earned the doubles point. Stammel, Staff and Ray proceeded to win their singles matches in straight sets, propelling Vanderbilt to its first team win of the spring season.
“Yesterday after the UT match we talked about the importance of resilience in this game and being able to regroup after some heartbreaking losses and I couldn’t be prouder of the way we competed on every single court today,” Tsoubanos said. “It was a complete team effort and they earned every bit of this victory over a very tough Miami team.”
Next up, the Commodores will host the Memphis Tigers on Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. CDT.
