Auburn players reach quarterfinals at NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships

WACO, Texas – Auburn junior DJ Bennett reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship while she and Ava Hrastar reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championship on Thursday at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas.

After the second-round victory, Bennett and Hrastar became the first doubles team to achieve Doubles All-American status since Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger in 2015. In the singles championship, Bennett became the first Auburn player to reach the tournament’s round of eight since Fani Chifchieva made the semifinals in 2008.

Hugs all around after that one 🧡#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/xsXoDyvHi3

— Auburn Women's Tennis (@AuburnWTennis) November 22, 2024

Bennett started off slow in her third-round singles match against California’s Katja Wiersholm on Thursday morning, but fought back to tie the first set at three. The two traded games until Wiersholm won a return game to take a 6-5 lead. The Auburn junior then won the next game to force a tiebreaker that she won 7-5.

She then took that momentum into the second set by jumping out to a 5-1 lead that featured three victories in deciding points. Wiersholm fought back late in the set, but the Belleview, Florida native prevailed 6-3 to claim the match in straight sets.

In the match, Bennett claimed 72 percent of her first serve points and took six of her eight break points in the victory.

“The first set was really tough,” Bennett said after the match. “I was really just trying to adjust to how she played, how she served and her ball. I feel like she played different in the second set. I just stuck to my game, coming forward and finishing at the net as much as I could. I didn’t have a great serve day today so I pushed through that and returned really well too so that helped.”

Bennett had to recover quickly before joining Ava Hrastar in their second round match against Martina Genis Salas and Annabelle Xu of Virginia. The opening set remained close throughout with Genis Salas and Xu winning every point in a game to take a 6-5 lead late in the set. Bennett and Hrastar then dominated the next game to force a first set tiebreaker. The Auburn duo took an early 5-2 lead and ultimately won the tiebreaker 7-5.

The two teams swapped set leads in the second frame before it tied at four. Bennett and Hrastar then won a crucial return game before taking the set 6-4 to claim a second-round victory.

“I feel like we had a really good start, and then for me personally nerves came into the picture a little bit,” Hrastar said after the match. “They were playing better tennis than we were at times and vice versa. There were a lot of momentum swings every time we were either up a break or down a break but I felt like we were still in the match.”

“It’s been a couple of years since the last time [I became an All-American] and I’ve been injured as well so to work really hard and just happy to be able to do it again, especially with someone that I love playing with so much and is also my best friend,” said Hrastar, who was named a Doubles All-American at Georgia Tech in 2022. “As a senior, this is the last time so it means a lot to have [Bennett] to do it with.”

Auburn freshman Merna Refaat came up short in her round of 16 match in the singles portion of the championship on Thursday, falling to No. 16 Julia Garcia Ruiz of Oklahoma 7-5, 6-3 to bow out of the tournament. 

On Friday, Bennett will face Virginia's Elaine Chervinsky in the singles quarterfinal round at 10 a.m. CT before she and Hrastar battle TCU’s Isabel Pascual and Jade Otway in the doubles quarterfinals at 3 p.m. CT.

Television coverage of the NCAA Singles & Doubles Championship will be available on ESPN+. Live scoring for each match will also be available online at ioncourt.com.

 

Thursday Results:

#32 DJ Bennett (AUB) def. #33 Katja Wiersholm 7-6 (5), 6-3

#16 Julia Garcia Ruiz (OKLA) def. Merna Refaat (AUB) 7-5, 6-3

#18 DJ Bennett/Ava Hrastar (AUB) def. #30 Annabelle Xu/Martina Genis Salas (UVA) 7-6 (5), 6-4