April 20, 2007
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Auburn women's tennis team (13-9) lost in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament to top-seeded Georgia (19-1), 4-1 on Friday. The loss splits the season series between the two teams.
"You have to give Georgia credit because they are a great team," head coach Tim Gray said. "I felt like we had a great shot at winning the doubles point, but we let it slip away."
Doubles began with Jil Hastenrath and Kelly Adams dropping their No. 3 match against Naoko Ueshima and Natalie Frazier, 8-3.
The Tigers squared up the match as the 20th ranked duo of Alex Haney and Melissa Koning defeated No. 13 Darya Ivanov and Yvette Hyndman, 8-6. Georgia then took the doubles point with an 8-6 win by Kelley Hyndman and Monika Dancevic over Fani Chifchieva and Whitney Chappell.
Down 1-0, Auburn tied the score at one as Hastenrath won her No. 5 singles match, 6-1, 6-3 over No. 80 Darya Ivanov.
Georgia took back the lead with a win by Naoko Ueshima over Adams at the No. 6 spot, 6-1, 6-0. The Bulldogs extended their lead as seventh ranked Natalie Frazier defeated No. 22 Chifchieva, 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 1 position.
With the Tigers battling back and forth on courts two and three, Georgia closed out the match on the fourth court with a 6-1, 6-0 win by Kelley Hyndman over Chappell.
"We are going to take a couple of days off and then get back to work and ready ourselves for regionals," Gray said. "I think we learned a lot from this weekend that we can take into the next few weeks."
Auburn will now await word on its postseason future. The NCAA women's selection show will begin at 1:45 CT on May 1 on ESPNEWS.
#4 Georgia 4, #30 Auburn 1
Singles competition
1. #7 Natalie Frazier (UGA) def. #22 Fani Chifchieva (AU) 6-1, 6-2
2. Alex Haney (AU) vs. #34 Monika Dancevic (UGA), 3-6, 5-5, susp.
3. Melissa Koning (AU) vs. #68 Yvette Hyndman (UGA), 2-6, 6-2, 2-2, susp.
4. Kelley Hyndman (UGA) def. Whitney Chappell (AU), 6-1, 6-0
5. Jil Hastenrath (AU) def. #80 Darya Ivanov (UGA), 6-1, 6-3
6.Naoko Ueshima (UGA) def. Kelly Adams (AU) 6-1, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. #20 Alex Haney/Melissa Koning (AU) def. #13 Ivanov/Y. Hyndman (UGA), 8-6
2. K. Kyndman/Dancevic (UGA) def. Whitney Chappell/Fani Chifchieva (AU), 8-6
3. Ueshima/Frazier (UGA) def. Kelly Adams/Jil Hastenrath (AU), 8-3