GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 13 Auburn women’s tennis opened its SEC slate with a win Saturday afternoon, defeating Florida 5-2 at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, Florida. The win marks the Tigers’ fifth victory over the seven-time national champion Gators in program history.
“Good win for the girls,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said after the victory. “Florida is a seven-time national championship program, and to win 5-2 on the road in our first outdoor match in a while is really impressive. We’re looking for six players to come out and play their best tennis, and I don’t think we’ve done that yet this year, but this is a really good start to the SEC schedule at a really difficult place to play against a historic program and a legendary coach like Per Nilsson.
“It was really cool for DJ (Bennett) to clinch the doubles point and the match against Florida after they didn’t recruit her. She grew up 30 minutes from here, so she had a big contingent of fans, and it was really special for her to clinch here in her senior year against a team she wanted to play for growing up.”
In doubles, Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers started the doubles point strong with a 6-3 victory at the No. 3 position, earning their 13th consecutive win together to start the season. The top Auburn doubles team of DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito then clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win over Xinyi Nong and Nikola Daubnerova, the 23rd-ranked doubles team in the nation.
At the No. 6 singles position, Florida’s Xinyi Nong took an early 3-2 lead over Esposito before the Auburn junior won the next four games to take the set 6-3. Esposito then delivered a bagel in the second set to win 6-3, 6-0 and give Auburn a 2-0 lead.
Florida then picked up straight-set wins at the No. 4 and No. 3 positions to tie the team score at 2-2.
After falling behind early in the first set, Bowers came back to win the set over Lucie Pawlak 6-4. Trailing 4-3 in the second set, Bowers finished the match with three straight games to win 6-4, 6-4 for her 20th singles victory of the season.
On the top singles court, DJ Bennett jumped out to a 4-1 lead over No. 54 Valery Gynina before taking the first set 6-3. Bennett continued that momentum into the second set by winning the first five games. She clinched the match 6-3, 6-3 to secure the team victory for the Tigers.
After the team win was secured, Khairutdinova earned a victory at the No. 2 singles position to make the final score 5-2.
The win improves Auburn’s record to 16-1 overall this season and 1-0 in conference play. Auburn has also won each of its four road matches this season. Up next, Auburn will travel to Norman, Oklahoma, to face No. 7 Oklahoma at 11:30 a.m. CT at the Headington Family Tennis Center.
#13 Auburn 5, Florida 2
Singles Results:
- #37 DJ Bennett (AUB) def. #54 Valery Gynina (FLA) 6-3, 6-3
- E. Khairutdinova (AUB) def. India Houghton (FLA) 7-6 (7-3), 7-5
- #23 Gabia Paskauskas (FLA) def. #95 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) 6-0, 6-4
- Brooke Black (FLA) def. Merna Refaat (AUB) 6-4, 6-2
- #26 Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. #80 Lucie Pawlak (FLA) 6-4, 6-4
- #27 Ava Esposito (AUB) def. #97 Xinyi Nong (FLA) 6-3, 6-0
Doubles Results:
- DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (AUB) def. #23 Xinyi Nong/Nikola Daubnerova (FLA) 6-3
- Valery Gynina/Brooke Black (FLA) vs. #86 Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat (AUB) 5-4, unfinished
- E. Khairutdinova/Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. India Houghton/Lucie Pawlak (FLA) 6-3
Time of match: 3:12 Order of finish: Doubles: 3,1; Singles: 6,4,3,5,2