STILLWATER, Okla. – Auburn senior Finn Murgett made the most of his first appearance in the NCAA Singles Championship that began on Monday, as he defeated Michigan's Gavin Young in the opening round of the championship. The Auburn senior came back from dropping the first set to Young to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
"I'm really proud of the way Finn [Murgett] fought today," said Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds. "He came out a little bit slow and reserved which allowed Gavin Young to use his big serve and aggressive tennis to pin Finn back on defense for most of the first set. Credit to Finn for changing the game plan and playing more of his style by taking those returns and being a little more aggressive with them rather than trying to get ahead in the point. Once he made that change, it was a different match and was all on Finn's terms for the next two sets."
After losing the first set, Murgett jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second before claiming it 6-2 and cruised to a 4-0 lead in the third set that he later won 6-4. In the decisive third set, Murgett was able to claim 68 percent of points in his serve games to pick up the victory.
Tyler Stice, in his fourth appearance at the singles championship, fell to Ozan Baris of Michigan 6-2, 6-4 to end his run in the opening round. With the loss, Stice's collegiate career finishes with an 80-69 overall singles record and a 78-46 overall doubles record. The Atlanta, Georgia native will leave the Plains inside the program's top-15 in career combined victories, singles victories and doubles victories.
Murgett will battle TCU's Jake Fearnley in the singles round of 32 at 1:30 p.m. CT.
Following Murgett's match with Fearnley, he and senior Raul Dobai will begin the NCAA Doubles Championship with an opening round match against Theo Winegar and Michael Zheng of Columbia. The match is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. CT.
"In tomorrow's match, [Murgett] plays a fellow Brit, who he grew up with and knows a lot about. TCU won the team even a couple of days ago, so Jake [Fearnley] has been playing some great tennis as of late, so it'll be a good match for them. I'm looking forward to those guys getting out in doubles but it's going to be a short turnaround."
Live coverage of the NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships will be available on ESPN+ and live scoring will be available online at ioncourt.com.
NCAA Singles Championship Round of 64 Results:
Ozan Baris (MICH) def. Tyler Stice (AUB) 6-2, 6-4
Finn Murgett (AUB) def. Gavin Young (MICH) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
Murgett advances to second round of NCAA Singles Championship
