No. 16 Vanderbilt Women’s Tennis welcomed two ranked opponents this past weekend, with Texas and Texas A&M visiting Nashville on March 14 and 16, respectively. After a narrow 4-3 loss against Texas, Vanderbilt ended Texas A&M’s seven-game winning streak with a 5-2 win in one of Vanderbilt’s biggest victories of the season. 

Vanderbilt’s win against Texas A&M was its highest-ranked win in more than five years and ended a two-game losing streak for the Commodores. The win was also monumental because the Aggies, reigning NCAA champions, are a contender to win it all again this year. Vanderbilt’s win proved that it is capable of hanging with the country’s best.

Vanderbilt vs. Texas 

Vanderbilt secured the doubles point with the No. 9-ranked doubles team of Célia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster winning 6-1 against Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz and Sabina Zeynalova. Elswehere, Vanderbilt’s doubles team lost to Texas before Valeria Ray and Trinetra Vijayakumar wrapped up the doubles matches with a win against Carmen Herea and Eszter Meri.

Despite winning the doubles point, Texas won four out of six singles matches to defeat Vanderbilt. No. 44 Mohr won at first singles against No. 38 Zeynalova in three sets: 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. No. 119 Ray defeated No. 70 Ashton Bowers 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in second singles. However, third, fourth, fifth and sixth singles all lost. No. 69 Meri defeated No. 35 Bridget Stammel 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. No. 30 Herea defeated Vijayakumar 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, while Vivian Ovrootsky soundly defeated Sonya Macavei 6-2, 6-2. At sixth singles, Kempenaers-Pocz defeated Webster 6-4, 6-3 to seal the game for Texas. 

Vanderbilt vs. Texas A&M

The Commodores started the match by dropping the doubles point. Texas A&M’s No. 68-ranked second doubles team of Mia Kupres and Daria Smetannikov defeated Macavei and Stammel 6-1, while Nicole Khirin and Lexington Reed defeated Ray and Vijayakumar 6-3 at third doubles.

However, Vanderbilt won five singles matches to claim victory over the Aggies, with every singles match going to three sets. Stammel was first off the court, defeating No. 51 Kupres 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. Then, in a back-and-forth match between Ray and No. 15 Khirin, Ray came out on top after a tiebreak, with a final score of 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6). Texas A&M then got its only singles win, with No. 57 Lucciana Perez triumphing 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 against Vijayakumar. Vanderbilt got in the win column again in first singles, with Mohr defeating No. 3 Mary Stoiana 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. Vanderbilt went on to win its fifth and sixth singles matches to secure victory over the Aggies, with Webster defeating No. 62 Smetannikov 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-3 and Amy Stevens defeating Reed 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2). 

Vanderbilt will continue its streak of facing ranked opponents against No. 11 Auburn on March 21 at 5 p.m. CDT in Auburn, Alabama.