No. 13 Women’s tennis shuts out Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky in Saturday doubleheader

Arkansas Box Score Eastern Kentucky Box Score
No. 13 Women’s tennis shuts out Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky in Saturday doubleheaderNo. 13 Women’s tennis shuts out Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky in Saturday doubleheader
Addi Ray/Auburn Tigers

AUBURN, Ala. – No. 13 Auburn women’s tennis earned two shutouts on Saturday, defeating Arkansas 4-0 in its SEC home opener before defeating Eastern Kentucky 7-0 at the Yarbrough Tennis Center. The 389 people in attendance for the Arkansas match set a new regular-season, single-match program record for home attendance at the Yarbrough Tennis Center.

“Arkansas was a really big win for us. Every SEC win is big,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said. “We had a great crowd out there, which really helped us. I thought we did really well in doubles and then finished three quick singles matches. Some of the other matches were a little bit tighter, but that is going to happen in the SEC. I think people play up a little bit when they play us, and we have to be ready for every team’s best. Overall, I thought it was a good performance.

“I was happy to see DJ (Bennett)’s win against a good player and Ashton (Bowers) with a good win, as well. We’re excited about being 3-0 in the league. Special shoutout to Sarah Hill and Melissa Shaver with the Yarbrough Tennis Center for helping us get a record crowd out. We appreciate them putting on the clinic beforehand and the Auburn community for coming out to support us.”

Auburn began doubles with a quick 6-0 win from Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers at the No. 3 position, their 15th dual-match doubles win of the season. Auburn’s DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito defeated 25th-ranked Carolina Gomez Alonso and Anet Koskel 6-1 to clinch the doubles point.

In singles, Angella Okutoyi dominated Koskel at the No. 3 position, winning 6-1, 6-1 to give Auburn a 2-0 lead.

On the top singles court, Bennett won each of the first four games in the opening set before cruising to a 6-1 first-set win. An early break in the second set helped the Auburn senior record a 6-1, 6-2 win to push the Tigers’ lead to 3-0.

Bowers and Arkansas’ Alex Panagiotidou were tied at two early in the first set when the Auburn sophomore earned a break on a deciding point to take a 3-2 lead. She won each of the next three games to take the set 6-2, then carried that momentum into the second set, jumping out to a 3-1 lead and eventually winning 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the match for the Tigers.

Auburn continued to look dominant in its second match against Eastern Kentucky, winning the doubles point quickly with 6-0 victories at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.

Alice Battesti, Bowers and Esposito each claimed straight-set singles victories to clinch the match for Auburn. After the match was decided, Refaat and Eva Ionescu also added straight-set wins. After dropping her opening set to Sasha Parkhomenko, Stefani Webb bounced back with a tiebreak win in the second set to force a 10-point match tiebreak, which she claimed 10-8.

With the wins, Auburn improved to 18-1 overall and a perfect 3-0 in conference play. The Tigers also remain undefeated at home this season with a 12-0 record.

Up next, Auburn will return to the road to face Ole Miss on Thursday at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center in Oxford, Mississippi.

 

#13 Auburn 4, #60 Arkansas 0

Singles Results:

  1. #37 DJ Bennett (AUB) def. #19 Carolina Gomez Alonso (ARK) 6-1, 6-2
  2. E. Khairutdinova (AUB) vs. Brooke Schafer (ARK) 6-4, 6-6 (1-4), unfinished
  3. #95 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) def. Anet Koskel (ARK) 6-1, 6-1
  4. #26 Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. Alex Panagiotidou (ARK) 6-2, 6-2
  5. #27 Ava Esposito (AUB) vs. Jimena Gomez Alonso (ARK) 5-7, 3-4, unfinished
  6. Eva Ionescu (AUB) vs. Arina Babenko (ARK) 6-7 (9-11), 1-0, unfinished

Doubles Results:

  1. DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (AUB) def. #25 Carolina Gomez Alonso/Anet Koskel (ARK) 6-1
  2. #86 Merna Refaat/Angella Okutoyi (AUB) vs. Brooke Schafer/Jimena Gomez Alonso (ARK) 5-3, unfinished
  3. E. Khairutdinova/Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. Alex Panagiotidou/Arina Babenko (ARK) 6-0

 

Time of match: 2:10 Order of finish: Doubles: 3,1; Singles: 3,1,4

 

#13 Auburn 7, Eastern Kentucky 0

Singles Results:

  1. Merna Refaat (AUB) def. Ceylin Ipek (EKU) 6-0, 6-4
  2. Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. Masha Fedenko (EKU) 6-0, 6-2
  3. Stefani Webb (AUB) def. Sasha Parkhomenko (EKU) 4-6, 7-6 (13-11), 1-0 (10-8)
  4. Ava Esposito (AUB) def. Izem Elif Olcer (EKU) 6-1, 6-1
  5. Eva Ionescu (AUB) def. Zhansaya Bakytzhan (EKU) 6-1, 6-0
  6. Alice Battesti (AUB) def. Anastas Cherniakova (EKU) 6-1, 6-0

Doubles Results:

  1. Stefani Webb/Angella Okutoyi (AUB) def. Masha Fedenko/Anastas Cherniakova (EKU) 6-0
  2. Alice Battesti/E. Khairutdinova (AUB) vs. Ceylin Ipek/Sasha Parkhomenko (EKU) 2-4, unfinished
  3. DJ Bennett/Natalie Outcalt (AUB) def. Izem Elif Olcer/Zhansaya Bakytzhan (EKU) 6-0

 

Order of finish: Doubles: 1,3; Singles: 6,2,4,1,5,3