FINALS BOUND: No. 3 Auburn downs No. 2 Texas A&M 4-1 in SEC Championship semifinals

FINALS BOUND: No. 3 Auburn downs No. 2 Texas A&M 4-1 in SEC Championship semifinalsFINALS BOUND: No. 3 Auburn downs No. 2 Texas A&M 4-1 in SEC Championship semifinals
Oklahoma Athletics

NORMAN, Okla. – For the first time in program history, Auburn will play for a title at the SEC women’s tennis championship. The No. 3 Tigers upset second-ranked Texas A&M in Saturday afternoon’s semifinal match at the Headington Family Tennis Center in Norman, Oklahoma. After coming back to claim the doubles point, Auburn received straight-set wins from Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat before Ashton Bowers came through in three sets to clinch the victory for the Tigers.

“It was awesome to find a way to come back in the doubles,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said after the win over his alma mater. “I thought we started slower on No. 2 and No. 3 against good teams. But we did play well down the stretch in doubles, which you want to do, but you don’t want to put yourself in that position against good teams too often. I was glad with the way we finished it and I felt like we carried some momentum into the singles.

“It was awful conditions to play tennis. It was chilly and very windy, so it wasn’t necessarily high-level tennis for anyone, but it was who could be tougher and play every point. We found a way to put four points on the board, and ultimately that’s what I wanted. We’ve been making a lot of history this year and this is just another step, but we’ve got bigger goals than just making the finals of the SEC tournament.”

The Aggies struck first in doubles, claiming a 6-1 win at the No. 3 position and forcing the Tigers to win on the other two courts. On the top doubles court, Auburn’s DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito claimed an early break to build a 3-1 lead before Texas A&M’s Mia Kupres and Lucciana Perez came back to tie the match 4-4. Leading 5-4, Bennett and Esposito then earned a break in the final game to win 6-4.

Texas A&M’s Ilinca Amariei and Violeta Martinez jumped out to a 5-2 lead over Auburn’s Okutoyi and Refaat at the No. 2 position. The Auburn duo then held to cut the deficit to 5-3 before winning a break, a hold on a deciding point to even the match and another break to take a 6-5 lead. Okutoyi and Refaat then held serve in the final game to win the match 7-5 and clinch the doubles point.

Auburn kept the momentum from the doubles point, winning the first set on four courts to begin singles.

Okutoyi faced Amariei at the No. 3 singles position and turned an early 3-1 lead into a 6-3 first-set win. The Auburn senior then dominated the second set, closing it out with five straight games to win 6-3, 6-1 for her 17th singles victory of the spring and extend Auburn’s lead to 2-0.

Refaat opened her match against Texas A&M’s Lexington Reed by winning four of the first five games of the opening set before ultimately claiming it 6-2. In the second set, Reed took a 3-1 advantage before Refaat bounced back to tie the set 4-4. The Auburn sophomore then won the next two games to win 6-2, 6-4 and put the Tigers within one point of the match victory.

Texas A&M then converted one of its opening-set wins into a victory at the No. 6 position to narrow the Tigers’ lead to 3-1.

With the opening set tied 3-3 at the No. 5 singles position, Bowers claimed three straight games against Violeta Martinez to win the first set 6-3. Martinez bounced back with a 6-2 win in the second set to force a decisive third. Bowers caught fire at the beginning of the third set, winning five straight games before closing out the match 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to clinch the team victory and begin the celebration on court five.

At the time of Bowers’ victory, the other two remaining singles matches were early in the third set.

With the win, Auburn avenged its 4-3 road loss to the Aggies earlier in the season and improved its record to 31-3 overall this season. The Tigers will face No. 15 LSU, the event’s 9-seed, in the final. The match will be played at 3 p.m. CT on Sunday and will be televised on SEC Network. Live scoring of the match will also be available online at SoonerSports.com.

 

#3 Auburn 4, #2 Texas A&M 1

Singles Results:

  1. #1 Lucciana Perez (TAMU) vs. #23 DJ Bennett (AUB) 6-2, 6-7 (3), 2-0, unfinished
  2. #41 Mia Kupres (TAMU) vs. #28 E. Khairutdinova (AUB) 4-6, 7-6 (6), 0-0
  3. #70 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) def. #62 Ilinca Amariei (TAMU) 6-3, 6-1
  4. Merna Refaat (AUB) def. #123 Lexington Reed (TAMU) 6-2, 6-4
  5. #55 Ashton Bowers (AUB) def. Violeta Martinez (TAMU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
  6. #111 Daria Smetannikov (TAMU) def. #64 Ava Esposito (AUB) 6-4, 6-1

Doubles Results:

  1. #2 DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (AUB) def. #15 Mia Kupres/Lucciana Perez (TAMU) 6-4
  2. #18 Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat (AUB) def. #47 Ilinca Amariei/Violeta Martinez (TAMU) 7-5
  3. Lexington Reed/Daria Smetannikov (TAMU) def. Ashton Bowers/E. Khairutdinova (AUB) 6-1

 

Time of match: 3:11 Order of finish: Doubles: 3,1,2; Singles: 3,4,6,5 Official: Andrew Rogers