Lady Vols win opener in SEC tennis tournament

The No. 24 Tennessee women's tennis team won the doubles point and cruised to a 4-0 victory over No. 72 Mississippi State (7-13) on Thursday in the first round of the SEC tournament in Auburn. Ala.

The fifth-seeded Lady Vols (14-8) advance to the second round and will take on No. 12 and fourth-seeded Vanderbilt today at 3 p.m. EDT.

'We played very well today and this was a great start for us,' Lady Vols co-head coach Mike Patrick said. 'Now we have to take advantage of the opportunity that we have in front of us and see if we can do a better job of competing against a talented Vanderbilt team than we did the first time we faced them.'

Singles winners for the Lady Vols included Caitlin Whoriskey, Ghizela Schutte, Connor Vogel and Rosalía Alda.

No. 24 Tennessee 4, No. 72 Mississippi State 0

SINGLES

1. No. 47 Caitlin Whoriskey (UT) def. Martina Banikova – 6-1, 4-3 (unfinished)

2. Ghizela Schutte (UT) def. Renee Joseph (MSU) – 6-0, 6-2

3. Samantha Orlin (UT) vs. Radka Ferencova (MSU) – 6-4, 5-2 (unfinished)

4. Elna de Villiers (MSU) vs. Zsófia Zubor (UT) – 6-2, 4-3 (unfinished)

5. Connor Vogel (UT) def. Valeriya Makarycheva (MSU) – 6-4, 6-1

6. Rosalía Alda (UT) def. DeAndra Saddler – 6-0, 7-6 (5)

DOUBLES

1. No. 13 Caitlin Whoriskey/Zsófia Zubor (UT) vs. Martina Banikova/Elna de Villiers (MSU) – 6-2 (unfinished)

2. Rosalía Alda/Ghizela Schutte (UT) def. Renee Joseph/Radka Ferencova (MSU) – 8-0

3. Jennifer Meredith/Connor Vogel (UT) def. Tatiana Feit/Valeriya Makarycheva (MSU) – 8-2

Men's Tennis: Tennessee takes on No. 18 LSU at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament in Fayetteville, Ark.

LSU (14-7), the No. 6 seed, advanced with a 4-0 win over Mississippi State on Thursday.

The eighth-ranked Vols (20-2) are the tournament's No. 3 seed and earned a first-round bye.