The 2025-26 Vanderbilt Women’s Tennis season began this past week at the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina. The Commodores competed in the prequalifying, qualifying and main draws for an opportunity to secure a spot in the NCAA singles and doubles Championships in November.
Four Commodores — Mia Yamakita, Trinetra Vijayakumar, Sophia Webster and Sonya Macavei — opened their seasons in the prequalifying draw. Yamakita, Vijayakumar and Webster earned early wins on Day 1, while Penn State’s Maelie Monfils outlasted Macavei, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Despite this hot start, only first-year Yamakita picked up a second singles victory. Yamakita defeated Cal’s Naomi Xu, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, while teammates Webster and Vijayakumar dropped matches against Wake Forest’s Krystal Blanch and Princeton’s Alice Ferlito. Yamakita then edged Virginia’s Isabelle Lacy, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to reach the qualifying draw.
Yamakita, the sole Commodore to compete in the singles qualifying draw, fell to Baylor’s No. 102 Zuzanna Kubacha, 6-4, 6-1. However, Yamakita’s week continued in the doubles qualifying draw with fellow first-year Erin Pearce. In their first match together, the No. 43 duo outlasted South Carolina’s Kaitlyn Carnicella and Daniela Piani, 6-4, 1-6, 10-5. The No. 37 veteran pair of Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel also produced a three-set victory, fending off Yale’s Leena Friedman and Orly Ogilvy in a 6-4, 5-7, 13-11 thriller.
Competition was evenly matched again on Day 2, as both Vanderbilt pairs played into a third-set tiebreaker. Despite easily taking the first set, Pearce and Yamakita fell to North Carolina’s No. 33 duo of Tatum Evans and Theadora Rabman, 2-6, 6-4, 10-7. Meanwhile, Ray and Stammel dropped the first set and narrowly defeated No. 39 Maria Sholokhova and Lucie Urbanova of Wisconsin 3-6, 7-6 (4), 10-5, to advance.
In the main draw, Stammel and Ray were joined by Célia-belle Mohr and Sophia Webster, Vanderbilt’s 2025 All-American doubles team. Both Commodore pairings rolled through Day 1. Mohr and Webster only dropped one game in their straight-set victory over Pepperdine’s No. 21 Anastasiia Grechkina and Alexia Harmon. Stammel and Ray upset Virginia Tech’s No. 19 Arina Gamretkaia and Ozlem Uslu, 6-1, 6-2.
Stammel and Ray persevered through tough singles losses earlier that day. The duo, ranked No. 27 and No. 45, respectively, fell in straight sets to ranked opponents in the main draw. South Carolina’s No. 24 Kaitlyn Carnicella beat Stammel, 6-2, 6-3, and Michigan’s No. 11 Piper Charney defeated Ray, 6-1, 6-3, sending the Commodores to the singles consolation bracket.
Both Ray and Stammel earned straight-set victories in the qualifying consolation round the next day, with Ray winning 7-5, 6-1 against NC State’s No. 38 Anna Zyryanova and Stammel capturing a 6-4, 6-2 defeat over Texas A&M’s No. 22 Mia Kupres. However, in the doubles round of 16, Stammel and Ray couldn’t gain traction against challenging competition from North Carolina’s No. 7 Ange Oby Kajuru and Susanna Maltby, who stifled the Commodores, 6-2, 6-3. On another court, Mohr and Webster held off NC State’s No. 25 Jasmine Conway and Anna Zyryanova to secure a 6-3, 6-3 victory and advance to the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals saw Mohr and Webster pitted against the highest-ranked doubles team in the nation, North Carolina’s Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton. The Commodores battled with the Tar Heels, storming back from a first-set loss to even out the match. Brantmeier and Hamilton ultimately staved off Mohr and Webster in the third-set tiebreaker to win 6-3, 3-6, 10-6, marking Mohr and Webster’s second straight quarterfinal finish at the event.
While Vanderbilt no longer had any players in the main stage of the draw, Stammel continued to fight in the consolation round, in which the final two players earn a feed-in spot in the NCAA Singles Championship. Earlier on Friday, Ray’s week ended to Pepperdine’s No. 37 Grechkina, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, but Stammel managed to pick up a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 74 Gabriella Broadfoot of NC State. Stammel’s second opponent of the day, Duke’s No. 61 Shavit Kimchi, withdrew before the match, advancing Stammel to the singles consolation round of 16.
In the consolation round of 16, Stammel fell behind early to Appalachian State’s No. 106 Savanna Dada-Mascoll but managed to take the second set to a tiebreaker. However, Stammel could not hold off Dada-Mascoll, who prevailed 6-4, 7-6 (4).
While Vanderbilt did not punch any tickets to the NCAA Singles or Doubles Championships, the Commodores left with several quality wins under hard-fought performances from Yamakita, Ray, Stammel, Webster and Mohr. Next up, the Black and Gold will head to Knoxville for the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships beginning Oct. 16.
