SEATTLE, Wash. — The No. 9 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team battled back from behind but lost 3-4 in a heartbreaker tiebreak to No. 14 Iowa State in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Friday.
The Cyclones won the doubles point, moving to singles with a 1-0 advantage over the Commodores.
In singles, No. 66 Anna Ross lost to No. 53 in straight sets, putting the Cyclones ahead by two. Then, Anessa Lee extended her singles win streak to nine with her victory over Iowa State’s Sofia Cabezas, putting the Dores within one point of the Cyclones. On court one, No. 34 Celia-Belle Mohr lost in the first set but battled back to push to a third, ultimately winning her match and tying the team score at two. No. 86 Holly Staff put the Dores within one point of winning with her victory over Anna Supapitch Kuearum.
The Cyclones tied the match at three, turning the attention to the court six matchup between Amy Stevens and Chie Kezuka, which saw a tiebreak victory for Kezuka.
“This was a great college tennis match and ended up being a heartbreaker for us. Hats off to Boomer and his team, they played very well and earned the win today,” head coach Alexe Tsoubanos said. “We competed well and came up just short, but I think having the experience of these early season matches at this level is invaluable to the growth of our team. The challenge now will be to regroup and get back in the arena for two more high-quality consolation matches over the next two days.”
The Dores will play either No. 1 Texas or Washington on Saturday. The Longhorns and the Huskies went head-to-head starting at 8:30 p.m. CT on Friday.