March 25, 2012
NASHVILLE - No. 64 Auburn women's tennis picked up another impressive doubles point and scored a key victory on court one in singles, but fell to No. 23 Vanderbilt 5-2 on the road on Sunday.
"It is great to win another SEC doubles point and that was a huge win for Jen against a top 30 player nationally," Auburn head coach Lauren Longbotham Meisner said. "She is really playing smart tennis and grinding it out when she needs to. We missed several opportunities to win points today. We didn't bring the confidence and focus in singles that we needed to beat a team of that caliber."
Facing an early hole in doubles play, Auburn (8-7, 3-3) once again showed its backbone and rallied for the doubles point, including another win over a top tandem. After Taylor Schreimann and Plamena Kurteva fell at the third line, Paulina Schippers and Jen Pfeifler rallied for an 8-6 win over the No. 40 duo of Jackie Wu and Alex Leatu.
The ranked win is the second in the last 10 days for Schippers/Pfeifler as they improved to 3-0 this season. The duo also knocked off Georgia Tech's ninth-ranked team of Jillian O'Neill and Alex Anghelescu on March 14.
The win by Schippers and Pfeifler set the stage for a decisive match-up on court one between the team of Emily Flickinger and Jackie Kasler and Vanderbilt's Ashleigh Antal and Lauren Mira. The Auburn duo was able to emerge victorious 9-7 and hand the Tigers the all-important doubles point and a 1-0 lead.
The win gave Auburn its third doubles point in a row and fifth in six matches. The Tigers have also won the doubles point in four-of-six SEC matches.
Facing a deficit of its own, Vanderbilt took control of the match with four-straight singles wins. Pfeifler chipped in a key point for Auburn as she battled the ITA's 28th-ranked player Wu into a third-set before recording a key ranked win, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4). Bennett fell 7-5, 2-6, 1-6 in a three-set heart breaker at the sixth line to wrap-up play.
The victory for Pfeifler was the freshman's first over a ranked opponent in her Auburn career.
Auburn is in action next on Friday when it hosts No. 2 Florida. Action is set for Noon CT at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. For the latest on Auburn women's tennis follow @AUWomensTennis on Twitter.