Women's Tennis Defeats Ole Miss, 7-0, for Second SEC Win 3/9/03

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The tenth-ranked Vanderbilt women's tennis team picked up its four straight win over Southeastern Conference foe Mississippi, as it swept the Rebels, 7-0, on Sunday afternoon inside the Brownlee O. Currey Tennis Center. With the win, the Commodores improve their overall record to 11-3 and 2-2 in the SEC, while the No. 37-ranked Rebels fall to 3-9 overall and 0-4 in the conference.

Vanderbilt head coach Geoff Macdonald received strong performances from all three of his doubles team, as the Commodores notched their 13th doubles point in 14 matches. The third-ranked team of senior Sarah Riske and junior Aleke Tsoubanos had a fairly easy time agaisnt No. 34-ranked Mira Radu and Virginia Tomatis, as they won, 8-3, at the No. 1 position.

Junior Kelly Schmandt and sophomore Audra Falk continued their strong play at the No. 2 spot, as they defeated Sabrina Peppl and Audra Adams, 8-4. Sophomore Annie Menees and freshman Ashley Schellhas had absolutely no problems with Karem Harboe and Florence Basile, as they won at the third doubles position, 8-3.

In singles competition, Riske, who is ranked No. 12 nationally, and Radu, who is currently No. 24, had an exciting match at the No. 1 position. Vanderbilt's lone senior picked up an early break in the first set and never looked back, as she won, 6-2. However, the second set was much tighter and ended up going to a tiebreaker. Radu was able to battle off a couple match points before winning the tiebreaker, 12-10. Riske came out with some early intensity in the final set tiebreaker, as she held off Radu to win the match 10-6 in the third.

Besides Riske's three-set match, the Commodores crusied in the other five singles matches. Freshman Ashley Schellhas and sophomore Annie Menees continued their solid play at the No. 5 and No. 6 positions, respectively. Schellhas defeated Peppl handily, 6-2, 6-2, while Menees had no problems with Adams, as she won 6-0, 6-2. Tsoubanos, Schmandt and Falk combined to give up only 10 games in their six sets of action.

The Commodores return to action at 2:30 p.m. Friday for a huge SEC match-up with No. 24-ranked South Carolina at the Currey Tennis Center. The weekend will be capped off by a showdown with No. 1-ranked Florida at 12 p.m. Sunday in Nashville.

Singles

Doubles