No. 11 Vanderbilt Women’s Tennis hosted No. 9 Oklahoma and Arkansas at the Lummis Family Tennis Center for its final homestand of the regular season. The Commodores’ late rally against the Sooners came up just short, but the Black and Gold quickly rebounded with a 7-0 shutout of the Razorbacks. 

Oklahoma 

The squads traded doubles matches to begin the outing. Julia Garcia Ruiz and Salakthip Ounmuang cruised to a 6-2 win over Erin Pearce and Mia Yamakita, but No. 19 Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel responded with a 6-4 upset over No. 17 Evialina Laskevich and Edda Mamedova. The Sooners ultimately came away with the doubles point, as the nation’s top-ranked tandem of Roisin Gilheany and Gloriana Nahum fought to a gritty 6-4 victory over No. 5 Célia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster. 

Yamakita kicked off singles play with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 takedown of Chloé Noël, and Garcia Ruiz answered with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Pearce. Ounmuang then beat Webster in a 6-4, 6-2 contest, putting the Sooners within one point of victory. With the fate of the match on the line, No. 25-ranked Ray answered the call, battling to a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 come-from-behind victory over No. 45 Mamdeova. Trinetra Vijayakumar played a nail-biting first set against Nahum, winning 7-5, but the Benin native overpowered the Commodore sophomore in the ensuing sets, 6-1, 6-2, to clinch the match for the Sooners.  

Even with the match decided, the remaining singles contest was played out, with No. 14 Stammel clawing back to claim a 2-6, 7-6 (9), 6-4 win over No. 10 Laskevich.  

“We were one point short, but I couldn’t be prouder of this group and the way we are competing right now,” Tsoubanos said. “I told them after the match that I’d go to battle with them any day of the week, and I’d do it knowing I have the best group of human beings I could ask for.”

Arkansas 

The Commodores fired on all cylinders against the Razorbacks. Ray and Stammel quickly set the tone for the rest of the match with a 6-0 blanking of Arina Babenko and Brooke Schafer, while Pearce and Yamakita doubled down with a 6-2 win over Jimena Gomez Alonso and Alex Panagiotidou. 

With the doubles point in their pocket, the Black and Gold did not relent. Yamakita began singles play with a 6-2, 6-0 rout of Panagiotidou, and Pearce followed suit with a 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Anet Koskel. Stammel, a senior playing in front of her home crowd on senior day, then  clinched the match with a 6-3, 6-1 takedown of Carolina Gomez Alonso. Ray and Webster tacked on 6-4, 6-0 and 6-3, 6-4 wins over Schafer and Babenko, respectively, and Vijayakumar completed the 7-0 sweep with a 6-4, 1-6, 11-9 three-set win over Jimena Gomez Alonso.  

“We played a very complete dual match today against Arkansas,” Tsoubanos said. “It started off with us playing much better doubles, where we really didn’t give them much space to climb into sets.” 

No. 11 Vanderbilt will hit the road to face No. 16 Florida April 10 at 4 p.m. CDT. The Commodores will then play their final match of the regular season at No. 4 Auburn April 12 at 12 p.m. CDT.