KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The No. 25 Vanderbilt women’s tennis team fell to No. 17 Tennessee after a courageous attempt on Friday.
Bridget Stammel and Valeria Ray led the Commodores on Court 3, securing the first doubles victory against Tennessee’s Lauren Anzalotta and Catherine Aulia. The Volunteers picked up the next win on Court 2, leaving the deciding match to Anessa Lee and Célia-Belle Mohr. Mohr and Lee clinched the doubles point for the Dores, winning 6-4 and giving them the advantage going into singles.
Lee continued her winning streak, picking up the first singles victory for Vandy and winning in straight sets. Holly Staff fell on Court 3, but Mohr claimed another straight-set victory, giving Vanderbilt a 3-1 lead. Stammel started out strong and claimed the first set, but then dropped the second and third. Ray recovered from the first set loss to take the second and forced a third set, alongside Sonya Macavei. Stammel and Macavei both lost in the third set, sealing the victory for Tennessee with an overall score of 4-3.
“Tough one for us today, coming up short against UT. We made some improvements in doubles and played a great point there,” said coach Aleke Tsoubanos. “Singles was a bit of a tale of two halves… we came firing out of the gates and had some pretty big leads on four out of six courts, but good teams don’t go away and a couple of those leads were turned around. We found ourselves in some three set matches that we weren’t able to pull out. Anessa and CB came through with two big points in singles and we will learn from these close matches, but right now we have to turn around and be ready to put it on the line again tomorrow night against Miami.”
Singles
1. No. 14 Mohr def. No. 92 Sofia Cabezas (Tennessee) 6-2, 6-4
2. Aulia (Tennessee) def. No. 24 Stammel 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
3. Lee def. No. 91 Alana Wolfberg (Tennessee) 6-0, 6-3
4. No. 115 Elza Tomase (Tennessee) def. No. 75 Ray 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
5. Anzalotta (Tennessee) def. No. 95 Staff 6-4, 6-1
6. Leyla Britez Risso (Tennessee) def. Macavei 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
Doubles
1. No. 17 Mohr/Lee def. Cabezas/Tomase (Tennessee) 6-4
2. Wolfberg/Esther Adeshina (Tennessee) def. Staff/Macavei 6-3
3. Stammel/Ray def. Anzalotta/Aulia (Tennessee) 6-2
On Deck: The Commodores continue the competition in Knoxville on Saturday, where they will compete against No. 21 Miami (Fla.) at 5 p.m. CT.