Vanderbilt women’s tennis earned a 4-0 win over Xavier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Lummis Family Tennis Center on May 1. The Commodores, seeded No. 14 nationally, advanced after dropping only nine combined games across completed singles and doubles matches.
The result moves Vanderbilt (21-9) forward in the tournament and reflects their continued strong performance this season. Head coach Aleke Tsoubanos said, “Xavier is a team we played back in February, and if you looked at the team score it looked lopsided but if you looked at the individual courts it was actually a much closer match than the score indicated. They won the Big East this year and earned the right to be in this tournament, so we came in with a ton of respect for them.”
Vanderbilt took an early lead with quick doubles victories from Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel on Court 2 without losing a game, while Erin Pearce and Mia Yamakita dropped just one game on Court 3. In singles play, Célia-Belle Mohr lost only one game at No. 1 to double Vanderbilt’s lead before Sophia Webster added another point with her straight-sets win on Court No. 6. Minutes later, Stammel secured victory for Vanderbilt with her win at No. 2.
Reflecting on their earlier meeting with Xavier during indoor play earlier this season, Tsoubanos said, “That [previous meeting] was an indoor match on five courts. I think we’re probably playing better tennis now than we did then, and I think we played a little bit better outside than we did indoors at the time.” She added that improvements throughout the season have helped strengthen their outdoor performance.
The Commodores will next face Clemson—who defeated ETSU—in Saturday’s regional final for a chance to advance to an NCAA Super Regional next weekend.
For more information or updates about upcoming matches, fans can follow @VandyWTennis on Instagram and X.
