Racers End Season At Vandy In NCAA Tennis

Friday, May 8

Nashville, TN

3 p.m.

Murray State

Vanderbilt

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

5/8/2015 6:36:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Gallery

The Ohio Valley Conference champion Murray State Racers ended their 2015 season at the NCAA Tournament with a 4-0 defeat in Nashville to the No. 4 ranked Vanderbilt Commodores at Currey Tennis Center.

The Racers finished the season with a 17-4 record.

The match was the second straight spring that the Racers represented the OVC in the NCAA Tournament and took a powerful Vandy team again after meeting them in 2014.

Even thought it was a 4-0 final, Racer head coach Jorge Caetano saw progress from his team.

"We've made progress, I can see it," Caetano said. "Unfortunately we have to stop when one team gets to four (match wins). We were very competitive on the other three courts when the match was stopped. It's not easy taking on the fourth team in the nation, but when we settled down, I was proud of our effort.

Geoff Macdonald of Vanderbilt affirmed the Racers' improvement from a year ago.

"Murray State's progress from last year was remarkable," he said. "They competed today against us at a higher level than a year ago. Hats off to them."

Caetano was a rookie coach this season inheriting a veteran championship squad. He's glad that the team was able to get to the NCAA's again.

"It was a great season and we handled the pressure of being the team to beat," Caetano said. "They did a great job working hard every day and not get ahead of themselves. My main thing this season was for them to have fun and I think they did that all season and they did that today here at Vandy, although losing is never fun."

MSU's top player Andrea Eskauriatza gave a battle to Vandy's Sydney Campbell before falling 6-1, 6-4. MSU No. 3 Megan Blue fell 6-1, 6-0 to Frances Altick, while it was a 6-1, 6-1 loss for MSU's Erin Patton to Vandy's Ashleigh Antal.

Vanderbilt took the doubles point by winning matches against MSU's Eskauriatza & Pattton 8-3 and Verginie Tchakarova & sister Eleonore 8-2.

Vanderbilt meets Oklahoma at noon Saturday with the winner advancing to the NCAA Women's Tennis Sweet 16 (May 14) in Waco, Texas. The Sooners, No. 41 in the nation, upset the No. 18 Buckeyes 4-3.

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NCAA Women's Tennis Match Results
Murray St. vs Vanderbilt
May 08, 2015 at Nashville, Tenn.
(Currey Tennis Center)
#4 Vanderbilt 4, Murray St. 0

Singles competition
1. #8 Sydney Campbell (VANDY) def. ESKAURIATZA, Andrea (MUR) 6-1, 6-4
2. #42 Astra Sharma (VANDY) vs. TCHAKAROVA, Eleonore (MUR) 6-4, 4-1, unfinished
3. #96 Frances Altick (VANDY) def. BLUE, Megan (MUR) 6-1, 6-0
4. #61 Courtney Colton (VANDY) vs. KARAKY, Nancy (MUR) 6-0, 2-4, unfinished
5. #120 Marie Casares (VANDY) vs. TCHAKAROVA, Verginie (MUR) 6-4, 5-2, unfinished
6. Ashleigh Antal (VANDY) def. PATTON, Erin (MUR) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. #20 Sydney Campbell/Courtney Colton (VANDY) def. ESKAURIATZA, Andrea/PATTON, Erin (MUR) 8-3
2. #18 Ashleigh Antal/Astra Sharma (VANDY) def. TCHAKAROVA, Eleonore/TCHAKAROVA, Verginie (MUR) 8-2
3. Marie Casares/Frances Altick (VANDY) vs. VASILEVA, Alena/BLUE, Megan (MUR) 3-3, unfinished

Match Notes:
Murray St. 17-4
Vanderbilt 20-6; National ranking #4
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (3,6,1)
First Round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament