Jan. 24, 2009
AUBURN - On day two of the Auburn Spring Classic, the Tigers faced off against Arkansas at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.
The day began with LSU taking on Virginia Tech with Auburn finishing in the evening against Arkansas.
Starting the afternoon with doubles play, senior Lukas Marsoun and freshman Alex Stamchev took the only Auburn doubles victory of the day, defeating Taylor King and Christopher Nott, 8-3, on flight two.
The top Auburn pair, Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz, took an 8-5 loss to Blake Strode and Matthew Hogan as Milan Krnjetin and Alex Petropoulos fell, 9-8 (4), to Tyler Tarnasky and Bradwin Williams.
"I saw some good things and I thought that we competed well today," said head coach Eric Shore. "Even though we dropped a couple of matches in doubles, we played better in doubles today."
Finding the Tigers' first singles victory, Krnjetin took a 6-2, 6-4 win over Bradwin Williams. Following Krnjetin, Petropoulos and Stamchev defeated Taylor King (6-2, 6-4) and Dmitry Lebedev (6-4, 6-4), respectively.
In the flight two singles match, sophomore Puetz battled back from an early dropped set to take a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Matthew Hogan.
The finale of the night came with Marsoun, who took Christopher Nott into a three-set battle and emerged with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) victory to top Auburn's night.
"It's good to see Tim (Puetz) back and playing after being out with his stress fracture," said Shore. "Lukas (Marsoun) competed very well today too and they both did a great job."
Tsyrenov, in his flight one match, struggled to find a rhythm and lost to Blake Strode, 6-1, 6-3. Freshman Powell Porter also lost, 6-4, 6-3, to Nikolas Zogaj.
"We have to come back and play a good LSU team tomorrow," Shore stated. "That will be an excellent last day to get ready for next weekend."
The Auburn Spring Classic will come to a close on Sunday, with action starting at 9:00 a.m. as Virginia Tech and Arkansas compete. Auburn is scheduled to take the stage at 1:30 p.m. against LSU. Both morning and afternoon competition will take place at the Yarbrough Tennis Center on the indoor courts.