The Vanderbilt Commodores hosted No. 16 Michigan State and Northwestern this past weekend, falling to the Spartans 4-1 on Saturday and beating the Wildcats 7-0 on Sunday.
At one point in Saturday’s doubles matches against MSU, Vanderbilt held a narrow 3-2 lead on all three courts. Joubert Klopper and Michael Ross were able to build on their lead, winning the first doubles match with a 6-4 score against Michigan State’s Ozan Baris and Ronnie Hohmann III. After this upset victory, Vanderbilt’s Jeremie Casabon and Nathan Cox fought back from being down 5-6 to force a tiebreaker. However, the Spartans won the tiebreaker resoundingly, only conceding one point.
With each team having one doubles win, all eyes then turned to Court 3, where the deciding match was dueled out by Vanderbilt’s Danil Panarin and Hugo Conquelin against Michigan State’s Sebastien Collard and Graydon Lair. For the second time, a Commodore duo found themselves down 5-6 before knotting the score at 6-6. Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, the result would be the same as the last tiebreaker, as the Spartans prevailed 7-3 to take the match and point.
Having lost the doubles point, the Commodores needed to win four of the six singles matches to take the victory. The Spartans won the first two matches, with Aristotelis Thanos beating Cox 6-2, 6-2 and with No. 6 Baris defeating Klopper 6-1, 6-4. Following the two quick losses, the Commodores attempted to mount a comeback with some hard-fought performances.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a good test for us and credit to [Michigan State]. They played a good match; it was a highly competitive match,” head coach Scott Brown said. “As far as our guys, I am super positive upon reflection after the match. We were right there from flipping the match.”
Casabon went on and collected Vanderbilt’s sole win of the day: 7-6 (8-6), 6-2. Vanderbilt then battled on for another twenty minutes, as both Ross and Panarin had taken the first set in their matches, only to lose their second sets. Ross was up 3-2 at one point in his third set, but he wouldn’t win another game. His opponent, Collard, took the match with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, closing out the victory for the now 10-0 Spartans.
“We lost a very tight doubles point, and seeing our guys respond — we won three of the five first sets out there. And then Michigan State came back, and we hung with them,” Brown said. “Then we were knocking at the door to a couple of courts when the match was clinched, so I am super proud of them. What Mike [Ross] did out there, coming back [from being] out for a couple of weeks with a hip injury, and seeing him come out there and battle and leave it all out there and almost pull that match out was pretty special.”
On Sunday, Vanderbilt stormed out to an early lead against Northwestern, clinching the doubles point. Klopper and Ross again led the way, and this time the other Commodore duos had better results. Panarin and Coquelin won their match with a 6-1 score, and Casabon and Cox were leading 5-1 when the doubles point was secured.
“It was a good battle with Northwestern,” Brown said. “[Northwestern] responded well after the doubles point and came out with fire, and I’m extremely pleased with the way our guys responded as well.”
In singles, Panarin earned the first victory 6-2, 6-3, and was followed by another two-set win by Cox, who defeated his opponent 6-4, 6-3. Ross was the next victorious Commodore, coming from behind to win a three-set match 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Casabon and Klopper also earned three-set victories, with Klopper in particular showing resilience with a 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 10-8 win. Coquelin defeated his opponent Chad Miller by default after Miller retired due to injury.
“[I] want to shout out Joubert [Klopper] and Nathan [Cox] and how they showed out today after yesterday,” said coach Brown. “They brought their lunch boxes to the court and were ready to work for every point.”
With their 7-0 win against the Wildcats, the Commodores advanced to 8-2 on the season.
“Today was a culture win for our team,” Brown said. “It was a test of how strong our culture is after yesterday’s tight match against Michigan State.”
Vanderbilt will look to build on this weekend when they host Pepperdine and Lipscomb next Friday at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. CST.
