No. 4 Women’s tennis drops tight road match to No. 2 Texas A&M

Box Score
No. 4 Women’s tennis drops tight road match to No. 2 Texas A&MNo. 4 Women’s tennis drops tight road match to No. 2 Texas A&M
Addie Ray/Auburn Tigers

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No. 4 Auburn women’s tennis was edged by second-ranked Texas A&M 4-3 on Thursday evening at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station. With the score tied 3-3, the match was decided at the No. 6 singles position, where Texas A&M’s Anna Perelman narrowly defeated Auburn’s Alice Battesti 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to clinch the victory.

“Really tough one to stomach,” Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo said. “We put ourselves in a really good position that we wanted to be in, and we really couldn’t sprint through the finish line. We’re still searching to find three doubles teams and six singles courts to show up against the good teams. It’s hard to give away points against good teams on the road.

“All of our goals are still ahead of us. We have ways to coach better, get better and improve. That will give us an opportunity to be where we deserve to be. I feel like our best tennis is still in front of us, but we have to learn from these really tough lessons.”

The Aggies struck first in doubles with a 6-1 win at the No. 3 position before Auburn’s Angella Okutoyi and Merna Refaat defeated Texas A&M’s Ilinca Amariei and Violeta Martinez 6-4. The match on the top doubles court went back and forth, with the Auburn pair of DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito earning a break in the final game to secure a 6-4 win over Texas A&M’s Lucciana Perez and Mia Kupres to claim the doubles point for the Tigers.

Both teams opened singles with three first-set wins, with Okutoyi, Refaat and Alice Battesti each claiming their respective opening sets for Auburn.

Refaat dominated Texas A&M’s Violeta Martinez at the No. 4 position, winning 6-1, 6-1 to give the Tigers a 2-0 advantage. The Auburn sophomore improved to 14-2 in dual matches this spring and 6-2 against SEC opponents. The Aggies then picked up a straight-set win at the No. 2 position to cut the Tigers’ lead to 2-1.

Okutoyi edged Lexington Reed 6-4 in the opening set at the No. 3 position. She then carried that momentum into the second set, winning each of the first four games before ultimately winning 6-4, 6-1 to give Auburn a 3-1 lead.

Texas A&M’s Daria Smetannikov handed Auburn’s Ashton Bowers her first dual-match singles loss of the season, winning 6-4, 6-2. Moments later, Perez, the top-ranked singles player in the nation, downed Bennett in straight sets to tie the match at 3-3.

At the No. 6 singles position, Battesti jumped out to a 5-3 lead in the opening set over Perelman before claiming it 6-4. Perelman responded with a 6-2 win in the second set to force a decisive third. Battesti won each of the first two games of the third set, but Perelman came back to tie it at 3-3 and eventually take a 5-3 lead. Battesti battled back to tie the set at 5, but Perelman ultimately won 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to seal the win for the Aggies.

The loss drops Auburn’s record to 26-3 overall and 10-2 in SEC play. The Tigers are second in the SEC standings, now one match behind Texas A&M at 11-1.

The Tigers will remain in the state for their next match against No. 6 Texas at the Texas Tennis Center in Austin. First serve is set for noon CT, with live video and live scoring available online at TexasLonghorns.com.

 

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

Singles Results:

  1. #1 Lucciana Perez (TAMU) def. #38 DJ Bennett (AUB) 6-2, 6-4
  2. #43 Mia Kupres (TAMU) def. #80 E. Khairutdinova (AUB) 6-3, 6-0
  3. #69 Angella Okutoyi (AUB) def. #124 Lexington Reed (TAMU) 6-4, 6-1
  4. Merna Refaat (AUB) def. #102 Violeta Martinez (TAMU) 6-1, 6-1
  5. Daria Smetannikov (TAMU) def. #44 Ashton Bowers (AUB) 6-4, 6-2
  6. Anna Perelman (TAMU) def. Alice Battesti (AUB) 4-6, 6-2, 7-5

Doubles Results:

  1. #10 DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (AUB) def. #18 Lucciana Perez/Mia Kupres (TAMU) 6-4
  2. #21 Angella Okutoyi/Merna Refaat (AUB) def. #54 Ilinca Amariei/Violeta Martinez (TAMU) 6-4
  3. Lexington Reed/Daria Smetannikov (TAMU) def. E. Khairutdinova/Ashton Bowers (AUB) 6-1

 

Time of match: 3:41 Order of finish: Doubles: 3,2,1; Singles: 4,2,3,5,1,6