Kentucky freshman Sarah Foster won her eighth-consecutive match, but third-ranked Vanderbilt proved to be too much, dealing the Cats a 5-2 defeat Saturday afternoon at the Brownlee O. Currey Tennis Center in Nashville, Tenn. The match concludes the regular season for each team.
Vanderbilt scored victories at all three doubles positions to take a 1-0 lead. The Commodores added straight-set wins at the three and four singles positions to build their lead to 3-0 before Foster put the Cats on the board. The Lexington Christian Academy product moved up a spot to No. 2 singles to face Vanderbilt?s 40th-ranked Kelly Schmandt. Foster scored an easy 6-3, 6-1 win to improve her singles record to 27-13 and finish at 10-1 in her first season of SEC competition.
Vandy?s No. 14 Audra Falk and Kentucky?s No. 19 Aibika Kalsarieva waged quite a battle at No. 1 singles before Falk prevailed in straight sets. Kentucky?s Kim Coventry forced Vanderbilt?s Ashley Schellhas to a third set before falling in a long super-tiebreaker. UK?s Christine Simpson got back on the winning track with a straight-set victory over VU?s Annie Menees.
Kentucky ends its regular season at 15-10 and 6-5 in the SEC, while Vanderbilt improves to 20-2 and 10-1 in the conference. The Cats return to Nashville next week for the SEC Tournament. Kentucky likely will earn a No. 6 seed, where they would play 11th-seeded Mississippi State (6-13, 1-10).
No. 3 Vanderbilt 5, No. 21 Kentucky 2
Doubles 1. No. 3 Schmandt/Tsoubanos (VU) def. No. 13 Foster/Kalsarieva (UK) ? 8-6 2. No. 39 Falk/Menees (VU) def. Maurer/Coventry (UK) ? 8-4 3. Schellhas/Fish (VU) def. Schwenk/Simpson (UK) ? 8-4
Singles 1. No. 14 Audra Falk (VU) def. No. 19 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) ? 6-4, 7-5 2. No. 64 Sarah Foster (UK) def. No. 40 Kelly Schmandt (VU) ? 6-3, 6-1 3. Aleke Tsoubanos (VU) def. Lara Maurer (UK) ? 6-1, 6-1 4. Amanda Fish (VU) def. Joelle Schwenk (UK) ? 6-2, 6-0 5. Ashley Schellhas (VU) def. Kim Coventry (UK) ? 7-6 (4), 4-6, 1-0 (12-10) 6. Christine Simpson (UK) def. Annie Menees (VU) ? 7-6 (5), 6-3
