Men's Tennis Continues Road Swing at Vanderbilt
3/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 20, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The 30th-ranked men's tennis team (7-8, 1-3 SEC) will play its third consecutive road match Sunday when it heads to Nashville to take on No. 32 Vanderbilt (9-6, 1-3 SEC) at the Currey Tennis Center. First serve is slated for 1:00 p.m. (CST).
"Vanderbilt is a team that is getting better each week, and they played Georgia down to the wire last week in Athens," head coach Billy Pate said. "They are well coached and they will be well prepared. No doubt it will be a challenge, especially on the road, and we'll need to be strong at every position in our lineup."
The Crimson Tide split a pair of conference matches on the road last weekend taking down No. 50 South Carolina 6-1 on Friday before falling by the same score to No. 7 Florida on Sunday. All three doubles contests against the Gamecocks were close, however it would be Alabama coming out with the point as senior Saketh Myneni and sophomore Michael Davis secured the early nod with a 9-7 victory at No. 1. The Tide went on to win the first five singles matches before sophomore Ricky Doverspike fell 7-5, 7-6(2) at the No. 2 spot to hand South Carolina its only point of the afternoon. On Sunday in Gainesville, the doubles point would, again, be awarded at the hands of a 9-7 decision, only this time it was Florida that came out on top. The Gators grabbed the first singles win of the match before Doverspike tacked on the Tide's only point with a straight-sets victory as No. 2. Florida went on to win the final four contests, with the win at No. 1 coming by retirement.
The Commodores are coming off a pair of road losses falling to No. 2 Tennessee 6-1 and No. 9 Georgia 4-3 last weekend. Vanderbilt dropped the doubles point for only the fifth time this season when it took on the Volunteers and proceeded to fall in five of the six singles contests. Senior Vijay Paul earned the Commodores lone point on the afternoon taking down No. 51 Rhyne Wiliiams in straight sets. Vanderbilt came back from being down 3-1 to the Bulldogs on Sunday to tie the dual match at 3-3, but the Commodores would end up on the short end of the stick as Paul fell to Bulldog senior Jamie Hunt in a three-set battle.
Both Alabama and Vanderbilt each have one player ranked in singles with Commodore freshman Ryan Lipman at No. 38 and the Tide's Myneni at No. 47. In addition, Vanderbilt has a trio of doubles teams ranked in the nation's top 75, however only one of the teams has seen playing time together in the dual match season. Junior Adam Baker and sophomore Charlie Jones are currently No. 31, Paul and Lipman check in at No. 42 and Lipman and junior Bryant Salcedo stand at No. 74.
Sunday's match will be the 56th meeting in the series that dates back to 1951. Alabama leads by a commanding 37-18 count including a 4-0 decision when the two teams met last on April 23, 2009.
"The guys were able to get a couple of days off for spring break," Pate added. "We then had a two good days of practice on campus, so we should be recharged and ready to go."
Live scoring for Sunday's match can be found by .
