Vandy Trio Dominate TVOC Tennis Finals

  • Sunday, June 15, 2014
  • B.B. Branton

Thanks to Vanderbilt’s Gonzales Austin, Marie Casares and Courtney Colton, ‘Dores tennis took home plenty of championship hardware on Finals Sunday at the TVOC tennis tourney at Manker Patten.

Casares won the women’s open singles title and teamed with Colton to defeat UTC’s Kayla Jones-Kelsey Coots for the women’s open doubles. Austin and Colton won the mixed open against UTC’s Pavels Grigorjevs-Samantha Caswell, while Austin took second in the open singles and doubles.

“This is a great tournament and we (Vanderbilt players) will be back next year,” said Austin who earned All-American honors in singles and doubles last month.

Austin was 11-2 in matches this week and has more tennis on his schedule this summer.

“I’ll play a Futures tournament in Rochester (NY) and Pittsburgh before attending the second semester of summer school.”

Casares, who also won the 2013 women’s doubles with UTC’s Kayla Jones, heads back to Nashville where she is working an internship in civil engineering this summer.

Austin lost to incoming Georgia freshman Wayne Montgomery in a three-set singles final and he and Elliott Orkin dropped the men’s doubles final to Carl Abalos and Salif Kante.

Vandy Record: The ‘Dores trio was an impressive combined 28-4 in all matches with Colton (9-1), Casares (8-1) and Austin (11-2). In sets won and lost the threesome was 57-10 … and the Vandy women’s head coach Geoff McDonald was runner-up in the men’s 55 singles.

No.1 vs. No.2 … the top two seeds met in the finals five times with the top seed winning three of five … Overall, the top seeds won six titles, No.2 won three, No.3 won once and an unseeded duo (Carl Abalos-Salif Kante in men’s open doubles) won once.

Kudos: once again players gave a thumbs up to all who made the tournament run smoothly and enjoyable to play in … tournament director Ned Caswell, head official Richard Rogers and his staff and Mary Cook running an efficient head table and all the workers who prepared the courts for each match and those who kept plenty of food available for players.

Double Winners:

Marie Casares (women’s open singles and doubles) … Ken Koelling (45s and 55s men’s doubles) …

2014 Sunday Finals

* Men’s 35s Doubles

(2) Richard Johnson def. Bayly Taff, 6-3, 6-1

* Men’s 45s Doubles

(1) Wesley Cash-Ken Koelling def. (2) Ned Caswell-Robert Evans, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6

* Men’s 55s Singles

(3) Hank Ream def. Geoff McDonald, 4-6, 6-2, 10-5

* Men’s 55s Doubles

 (1) Ken Koelling-Scott Shepherd def. (2) Robert Fisher-Daryl Massengill, 6-2, 7-6 (4)

* Men’s 65s Singles

(1) Marc Anthony def. (2) Dennis Strickler, 6-4, 6-2

* Men’s 65s Doubles

(2) Chuck Maland-Dennis Strickler def. (1) Chris Brown-Clive Kileff, 6-4, 6-4

* Men’s 75s Singles

Jack Myers def. Don Smith, 6-3, 6-1

* Men’s 75s Doubles

Finals: Darrell McDonald-Don Smith def. Lamar Hooker-Ken Nelson, 7-5, 6-2

(Note: McDonald-Smith rallied in both sets to win … they trailed 5-2 in the first and 4-1 in the second set before winning in straight sets.)    

* Women’s 45s Doubles

Susan Bevil-Caroline Bentley def. Maria Iarossi-Kelly Matone, 7-5, 6-3

* Women’s 55s Doubles

Nancy Miller-Carol Smedley def. Janice Forsyth-R Stimson, 6-3, 6-1

* Mixed 45s Doubles

Champions: Mike Parker-Sue Bartlett

Parker-Bartlett def. Cynthia Jones-Randy Stephens, 6-3, 6-0

Parker-Bartlett def. Karl Gifford-Linda Hancock def.  6-3, 6-3

Cynthia Jones-Randy Stephens def. Karl Gifford-Linda Hancock, 6-1, 0-6, 10-6

* Mixed 55s Doubles

Finals: Cynthia Jones-Randy Stephens def. Carol Smedley-James Smedley, 6-1, 6-4

* Mixed 65s Doubles

Judith Siracusa-Pat Siracusa def. Deborah Wilhelm-Wayne Wilhelm, 6-1, 6-0

* Men’s Open Singles

 (2) Wayne Montgomery def. (1) Gonzales Austin, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3

* Men’s Open Doubles

Carl Abalos-Salif Kante def. (1) Elliott Orkin-Gonzales Austin, 6-1, 6-2

* Women’s Open Singles

(1) Marie Casares def. (4) Natalia Maynetto, 6-0, 6-2

* Women’s Open Doubles

(1) Marie Casares-Courtney Colton def. Kayla Jones-Kelsey Coots, 6-4, 6-4

* Mixed Open Doubles

(1) Gonzales Austin-Courtney Colton def.  Pavels Grigorjevs-Samantha Caswell, 6-1, 6-3

contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net

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