AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) – 11th ranked Auburn women’s tennis hosted number three Texas A&M at the Yarbrough Tennis Center Friday night coming off of two losses early into their SEC spring campaign. Auburn could not earn their third top five upset of the season, falling in a thrilling last singles match that came down to the third set, 4-3.
The Auburn ladies put the first point on the board, sweeping the first two doubles matches against the Aggies to gain the advantage going into singles play. The Tigers’ Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat defeated Mia Kupres and Daria Smetannikov in the second doubles match in eight sets, 6-2. Ava Esposito and Maria Garcia were not too far behind the Okutoyi and Refaat pairing, taking down Nicole Khirin and Lexington Reed of the Aggies, 6-3. This gave Auburn the sweep of the doubles matches 2-0 as well as the first point of the match, giving Auburn the early lead in their upset bid.
Texas A&M struck back strongly in singles play, with Lexington Reed taking out Auburn’s Alice Battesti 6-1, 6-0 to give the Aggies their first point in the match. The rest of the singles matches were pretty well fought. Auburn’s Ava Esposito put the Tigers back into the lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Daria Smetannikov for Texas A&M. Angella Okutoyi followed close behind with a win over Aggies’ Mia Kupres 6-3, 6-2. Lucciana Perez got a point back for Texas A&M in her match against Auburn’s Merna Refaat, defeating her in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. Mary Stoiana then tied the match for the Aggies, taking down DJ Bennett 6-4, 6-3.
The match came down to the only singles competition that went to the third set between Auburn’s Ava Hrastar and Nicole Khirin from Texas A&M. Hrastar was put on the back heel by Khirin early in the match, losing 6-0 in the opening set. She wasn’t fazed however, breaking Khirin’s serve in a couple key games to earn the third set by winning the second, 6-4. Both women started off the third set with service breaks, tying the first four games, 2-2. It was Khirin however, who took over the moment, winning the next three sets and shutting down the match, winning 6-4.
Auburn falls to 12-4 on the season and just 1-3 in conference play. Women’s tennis plays again Sunday at noon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn as they host ninth ranked Texas.
