Feb. 28, 2010
TULSA, Okla. - The No. 35 Auburn men's tennis team traveled to Tulsa, Okla., on Sunday and fell in a highly-contested match with the No. 33 Tulsa Hurricane, 4-2, at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
"Tulsa is clearly better than their current ranking," head coach Eric Shore said. "We put ourselves in a position to win, but our bottom lineup is not getting it done for us. We can't continue to count on the top to win matches."
The Hurricane improve to 9-3 on the season, while the Tigers are now 3-4.
Tulsa opened up the day strong, capturing the doubles point and sweeping the Tigers in all three matches. The Hurricane's Marcelo Arevalo and Grant Ive came away with the 8-4 win over Tim Hewitt and Lucas Lopasso at the No. 3 position to start the day.
The home team secured the doubles point with an 8-6 victory at the No. 1 doubles spot, seeing Philip Stephens and Ashley Watling defeat Andreas Mies and Tim Puetz. Marko Ballok and Alastair Barnes closed out doubles competition at No. 2, defeating Alexander Sajonz and Alex Stamchev, 9-7.
The Hurricane picked up two more points once singles play started, seeing wins at the No. 5 and No. 6 spots.
Auburn put points on the board after freshmen Hewitt and Lopasso picked up key victories at the No. 2 and No. 4 spots, respectively. Hewitt topped Stephens in two sets (6-4, 7-6) to improve his singles record to 6-2 on the spring season. Lopasso defeated Barnes in a tough, three-set battle (6-4, 3-6, 6-3) to up his career record to 4-3.
The two teams saw a major battle at the No. 1 spot as Arevalo and Puetz fought for a much-needed team point. Puetz, the 25th-ranked player in the country, opened up with a 6-4 win in the first set. Arevalo, however, came back with a 6-3 win in set two. The pair went back and forth in the final set, but Arevalo had enough left in him to come away with the 7-6 set three victory and gave Puetz his first loss on the season.
At the No. 3 singles spot, Stamchev defeated Watling, 7-6, in the first set. Watling, however, earned a 6-4 win in the second to force the deciding set. Stamchev was up 2-1 in set three before play was called.
The Tigers begin SEC play as they host Tennessee at the City of Auburn/Auburn University Yarbrough Tennis Center on Friday. Start time is set for 2 p.m.
At Tulsa
Singles
1. Marcelo Arevalo (Tulsa) def. No. 25 Tim Puetz (Auburn); 4-6, 6-3, 7-6
2. Tim Hewitt (Auburn) def. Philip Stephens (Tulsa); 6-4, 7-6
3. No. 124 Alex Stamchev (Auburn) vs. No. 32 Ashley Watling (Tulsa); 7-6, 4-6, 2-1 unf.
4. Lucas Lopasso (Auburn) def. Alastair Barnes (Tulsa); 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
5. Marko Ballok (Tulsa) def. Andreas Mies (Auburn); 7-5, 6-2
6. Grant Ive (Tulsa) def. Alexander Sajonz (Auburn); 6-1, 6-1
Doubles
1. Stephens/Watling (Tulsa) def. Mies/Puetz (Auburn); 8-6
2. Ballok/Barnes (Tulsa) def. Sajonz/Stamchev (Auburn); 9-7
3. Arevalo/Ive (Tulsa) def. Hewitt/Lopasso (Auburn); 8-4
Match Notes:
Auburn 3-4; National ranking #35
Tulsa 9-3; National ranking #33
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6, 5, 2, 4, 1)
Match played indoors