AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn got off to a roaring start during the first day of the 2022 Fall Ranked Spotlight in Cary, NC on Thursday evening, as the Tigers were able to take all four doubles matches that they participated in.
Junior Ariana Arseneault and senior Carolyn Ansari took down North Carolina's Fiona Crawley and Anika Yarlagadda 6-4 in their first match of the day. The Auburn team then took down Abigail Rencheli and Amelia Rajecki from host school NC State by the same score later in the day.
Auburn freshman duo Kaitlyn Carnicella and DJ Bennett defeated East Tennessee State's Laylo Bakhodirova and Fernanda Carvajal by a 6-2 score. Carnicella and Bennett then went on to win a close match over Roxana Manu and Jocelyn Massey from Kansas 7-6 (2). Thursday marked the collegiate tennis debut for both Auburn freshmen.
"The chemistry in a doubles team is essential," Tigers head coach Caroline Lilley said after Auburn's undefeated day on the courts. "I love the way our players made their partners better this evening and how we responded to adversity as a united front. Our body language and joy during competition was contagious and fun to watch."
Day two of the 2022 Fall Ranked Spotlight will feature singles matches in a bracket style event on Friday. Arseneault will play North Carolina's Fiona Crawley, who she faced in doubles on Thursday while her teammate Ansari drew a match against Kari Miller from Michigan. In a separate bracket, Carnicella will face Kansas' Tamari Gagoshidze while Bennett will battle Nandini Sharma from UCF.
The format for all matches will be a standard best-of-three sets with a 10-point tiebreaker being used if necessary in the third set.
