Women's Tennis Earns Trip to Gainesville; Defeats No. 21 Notre Dame, 4-0 5/10/03

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - By virtue of its 4-0 victory over No. 21-ranked Notre Dame (16-9) on Saturday at the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center, the 15th-ranked Vanderbilt women's tennis team (20-5) will advance to its sixth-straight NCAA Sweet 16. The tournament kicks off Thursday, April 15, on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The Commodores will find out their opponent on Sunday, as they will play the winner of the Tennessee/Virginia match. Vanderbilt dropped both meetings to Tennessee this season, while it defeated Virginia back on January 18 in Nashville.

One of the stars on Saturday for Vanderbilt was sophomore Annie Menees, who went 2-0 in her matches. Menees joined forces with junior Kori Scott at the No. 3 doubles position to defeat Caylan Leslie and Jen Smith, 8-5, to give the 'Dores the point clinching victory. Menees then came back in singles to give head coach Geoff Macdonald's squad the team victory, as she defeated Smith, 6-3, 6-1, at the No. 6 singles spot.

Junior Kelly Schmandt and sophomore Audra Falk won the first doubles match for Vanderbilt. The nation's 37th-ranked team had no problems in defeating Sarah Jane Connelly and Kristina Stastny at the No. 2 position, 8-2. Notre Dame did pick up a big win at the top doubles position, as Lauren Connelly and Alicia Salas upset Vanderbilt third-ranked team of Sarah Riske and Aleke Tsoubanos, 8-4.

Falk gave Vanderbilt its first singles win of the afternoon, as she crusied by Sarah Jane Connelly in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. With the win, Falk improves to 23-4 on the year and 17-4 in dual matches.

Freshman Ashley Schellhas notched her team-leading 25th singles win of the year, as she held off Lauren Connelly, 6-3, 6-3. Schellhas has won 25 of 29 singles matches in 2002-03.

Riske, Tsoubanos and Schmandt all had their matches stopped after the Commodores clinched the victory. Tsoubanos and Schmandt were both up one set, while Riske was a set to Leslie.

Singles

Doubles