No. 8 Women’s tennis pulls out road victory over Arkansas

Box Score
No. 8 Women’s tennis pulls out road victory over ArkansasNo. 8 Women’s tennis pulls out road victory over Arkansas
Noelle Iglesias/Auburn Tigers

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – No. 8 Auburn defeated Arkansas by a 4-1 final score on Sunday afternoon at the Billingsley Tennis Center in Fayetteville. The Tigers claimed the doubles point followed by three singles wins to clinch the team’s seventh SEC victory of the season.

“Played a great doubles point and then Arkansas thew the kitchen sink at us to start singles,” said Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo. “We did a great job of flipping matches on a bunch of courts. We played like street fighters out there down the stretch. With lots of adversity thrown at us in the match, we responded time and time again. Now, we’ll get some rest and get ready for another road weekend.”

Auburn opened the match strong in the doubles point, getting wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions. Auburn’s Ava Esposito and Maria Garcia took an early lead over Arkansas’ Jimena Gomez Alonso and Katarina Pavlechova before winning 6-1 on court three while the Tiger duo of Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat closed out their match by claiming three straight games to clinch the doubles point on court two.

The Razorbacks began to turn the momentum at the beginning of singles play, claiming opening set wins in four of the six singles matches. Arkansas also won the first singles match to finish in straight sets at the No. 4 position to tie the match at one.

After dropping the first set, Okutoyi bounced back by winning each of the first three games of the second set before claiming it 6-2 over Olga Bienzobas to force a third set. The Auburn junior again jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the final set and cruised to a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win to improve her singles dual match record to 16-2 this season.

At the No. 3 singles position, Auburn’s Ava Hrastar fell behind 2-0 in the first set to Katarina Pavlechova before fighting back to tie the set at three. With the set tied at five, Hrastar won the next two games to win the opening set and took that momentum into the strong second set to win the match 7-5, 6-1. The win gave the Tigers a 3-1 advantage in the match with three singles matches still in progress.

Arkansas’ Anet Koskel came back from a 5-2 deficit in the opening set of her match against Esposito to win 7-5 before the Auburn sophomore bounced back with a 6-3 victory in the second set. In the decisive third set, Esposito jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the final set and went on to win 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 and clinch the team victory for the Tigers.

The win improves Auburn’s record to 18-5 overall and 7-4 in conference play. Next up, the Tigers will face Kentucky in a road match on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. CT in Lexington at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex.

 

 

#8 Auburn 4, Arkansas 1

Singles Results:

  1. #74 Carolina Gomez (ARKW) vs. #4 DJ Bennett (AUB) 6-1, 4-6, 5-2, unfinished
  2. #62 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) def. Olga Bienzobas (ARKW) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
  3. Ava Hrastar (AUB) def. Katarina Pavlechova (ARKW) 7-5, 6-1
  4. Grace O'Donnell (ARKW) def. #36 Merna Refaat (AUB) 6-3, 6-4
  5. Ava Esposito (AUB) def. Anet Koskel (ARKW) 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
  6. Jimena Gomez Alonso (ARKW) vs. Alice Battesti (AUB) 5-7, 3-4, unfinished

Doubles Results:

  1. #16 DJ Bennett/Ava Hrastar (AUB) vs. Olga Bienzobas/Carolina Gomez (ARKW) 5-2, unfinished
  2. Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat (AUB) def. Anet Koskel/Grace O'Donnell (ARKW) 6-3
  3. Ava Esposito/Maria Garcia (AUB) def. Jimena Gomez Alonso/Katarina Pavlechova (ARKW) 6-1

 

Time of match: 2:43; Order of finish: Doubles: 3,2; Singles: 4,2,3,5