No. 16 Vanderbilt Women’s Tennis continued conference play on March 28 when it took on No. 6 LSU at home in Nashville. When all was said and done, the ‘Dores emerged with a 5-2 victory and their second top-10 win at home this season. Next, the Commodores traveled to Oxford, Mississippi, to take on Ole Miss on March 30. Once again, they emerged victorious, defeating the Rebels 5-2 and closing the weekend ranked fourth in the SEC.
Vanderbilt vs. LSU
Doubles play started slow for the Commodores, with the No. 14-ranked duo of Celia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster falling to Kenna Erickson and Anita Sahdiieva — their first unranked loss since November. However, Vanderbilt recovered as Sonya Macavei and Amy Stevens defeated Tilwith Di Girolami and Gaby Rivera 6-4. With doubles play knotted at one apiece, the newly repaired duo of Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel picked up a 6-4 win over Cadence Brace and Kinaa Graham — and with it, the doubles point.
After relinquishing the doubles point, the Tigers claimed the first singles point when Mohr fell to Brace, 6-3, 7-5. This also marked the first time since April 2023 that Mohr has dropped three straight singles matches. Despite the loss, Vanderbilt evened the score when Stammel picked up a hard-fought two-set win over Graham 7-6 (13-11) and 6-3. Just as quickly as Vanderbilt took the lead, though, LSU tied it back up when Trinetra Vijayakumar fell to Sahdiieva 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. A win from Ray over Girolami in a reverse sweep 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 put the ‘Dores back in front, and they didn’t look back. Webster and Stevens rounded out the Commodores’ play by grabbing two-set wins over their opponents Erickson and Indi Patel, respectively.
Vanderbilt head coach Aleke Tsoubanos was impressed with the quality win her team produced despite the slow start.
“We didn’t start out with a lot of energy,” Tsoubanos said. “That’s something you can control, and fortunately, we were still able to pull some of the match points out. You never want to put yourself in that kind of hole emotionally because the tennis is hard enough as it is, but it was a great quality win at home today. We competed really well on every single court, which is always the goal.”
Vanderbilt vs. Ole Miss
Ray and Stammel rolled to a 6-3 win over Andrea Nova and Brooklyn Olson to start the ‘Dores off on the right foot in Oxford. Next up was Mohr and Webster, who at one point were down 3-0 to Ludmila Kareisova and Anaelle Leclercq-Ficher, but recovered to clinch a 6-4 win — and the doubles point.
Vanderbilt continued to roll on the singles side of play, capturing the match with four straight wins. Webster started the Commodores out with a two-set win over Rachel Krzyzak, and Mohr followed with a two-set win of her own over Emily Welker. Stammel defeated Lucie Petruzelova 6-3, 6-4 next, while Stevens defeated Emma Kette, 7-6 (7-5), 6-0. Although Vijayakumar and Ray both dropped hard-fought three-set matches to Alice Soulie and Kareisova, respectively, the dominant start was enough to put the Commodores over the top.
Tsoubanos was once again pleased with her team’s performance.
“It was a really quality win on the road; Ole Miss is a very good team,” Tsoubanos said. “I think we were tough in the critical moments of singles play to pull away on Courts One, Three and Five in those first sets, which all started quite close.”
Next up for the Commodores is another road match, this time against No. 1 Georgia on April 4.
