No. 18 Lady Vols Fall to No. 7 Vanderbilt, 4-2

Friday, April 12

Knoxville, Tenn.

4:00 PM

University of Tennessee

Vanderbilt

Photo by: Amanda Pruitt/Tennessee Athletics

April 12, 2019 | Women's Tennis

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The 18^th-ranked Tennessee women's tennis team won the doubles point and made a late push in singles, but fell to No. 7 Vanderbilt Friday at Barksdale Stadium, 4-2.

"Vanderbilt is one of the best teams in the country and they showed us why," Tennessee head coach Alison Ojeda said. "Both teams came out and fought really hard and we did an excellent job getting the doubles point on the board."

Tennessee (18-6, 8-4 SEC) won the doubles point for the fourth match in a row behind wins on Court 1 and Court 3.

Eleventh-ranked duo Sadie Hammond and Kaitlin Staines clinched the doubles point with a 7-5 win over No. 77 Emily Smith and Emma Kurtz. Smith and Kurtz trailed 5-2, but were able to come back and tie the match at 5-5.

From there, Hammond and Staines won the final two games to secure the win.

"I love that the doubles point came down to Court 1," Ojeda said. "It was nice to see our No. 1 doubles team have to work for a match and come out on top."

Johanna Silva and Rebeka Mertena were responsible for Tennessee's other doubles win on Court 3, as the duo navigated their way to a 6-2 win over Summer Dvorak and Christina Rosca.

Silva and Mertena have now won seven of their past eight doubles matches.

In singles, Tennessee fell to ranked Commodores at the No. 1, 2 and 3 spots in the lineup, but captured a win at No. 4 and battled back from early deficits at No. 5 and 6.

Mertena gave the Lady Vols their lone singles win, taking down Carolyn Campana, 6-3, 6-3. The freshman Mertena has now won 14 of her past 15 singles matches, dating all the way back to February.

Tenika McGiffin dropped the first set on Court 6, 6-4, but fought back to take a second set late lead. Smith, ranked the No. 105 singles player, however was able to force and win a tiebreaker to take the second set, 7-6 (1).

On Court 5, Ariadna Riley also fell in the first set to No. 70 Dvorak, 6-2, but won the second set by a 6-3 mark. The match did not finish, as Vanderbilt (15-5, 10-2 SEC) cinched the match while the third set was in progress.

"In singles, Vanderbilt was better than us," Ojeda said. "They're an unbelievably well-coached team and we have a ton of respect for them.

"The thing I do feel good about with our team is even though I don't feel like we played our best tennis on all six courts, we fought our hearts out. The mental toughness is there, the fitness is there, the desire to win is there, our ability to compete is there. All of the other stuff that we've been talking about all year long is there. But if you want to beat the best teams in the country, you have to execute."

UP NEXT: The Lady Vols are set to celebrate Sadie Hammond's Senior Day on Sunday at 1 p.m. prior to Tennessee's regular season finale against No. 24 Kentucky.

RESULTS
No. 7 Vanderbilt 4, No. 18 Tennessee 2

Singles
1️. #68 Georgia Drummy (VU) def. #72 Sadie Hammond (UT), 6-1, 6-2
2. #7 Fernanda Contreras (VU) def. Kaitlin Staines (UT), 6-4, 6-1
3️. #17 Christina Rosca (VU) def. Johanna Silva (UT), 6-4, 6-3
4️. Rebeka Mertena (UT) def. Carolyn Campana (VU), 6-3, 6-3
5️. Ariadna Riley (UT) vs. #70 Summer Dvorak (VU), 2-6, 6-3, 1-2, unfinished
6️. #105 Emily Smith (VU) def. Tenika McGiffin (UT), 6-4, 7-6 (1)

Doubles
1️. #11 Hammond/Staines (UT) def. #77 Smith/Kurtz (VU), 7-5
2️. Drummy/Contreras (VU) def. Haumuller/McGiffin (UT), 6-2
3️. Mertena/Silva (UT) def. Rosca/Dvorak (VU), 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles (2, 3, 1); Singles (1, 2, 4, 3, 6)