Alabama
Auburn
Women's Tennis Edged at Auburn, 4-3
4/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
AUBURN, Ala. - The Alabama women's tennis team (4-13, 0-9 Southeastern Conference) went toe-to-toe with No. 14 Auburn (19-4, 7-2 SEC) on Friday night before narrowly falling by a final score of 4-3 in a match that lasted nearly four hours.
The doubles point would be decided by a tiebreak on court two after each team claimed one of the other courts. The Crimson Tide took the matchup at the top spot, where senior Natalia Maynetto and junior Erin Routliffe took down the 24th-ranked duo of Pleun Burgmans and Alizee Michaud 6-3. Auburn won at the third position, as Andie Dikosavljevic and Alannah Griffin got past sophomores Bennett Dunn and Aryn Greene 6-2.
That turned the focus to court two. Freshman Andie Daniell and junior Joanna Nena Savva trailed 5-3 against Paula de Man and Caroline Turner but reeled off three games in a row for a 6-5 advantage. The match would eventually go into a tiebreak, where Daniell and Savva managed to come away with the victory eight points to six, giving Alabama a 1-0 lead over the Tigers.
Auburn responded by taking four first sets in singles. Burgmans, ranked 77th nationally, defeated Maynetto 6-1, 6-0 on court three to pull her team even. Routliffe, ranked 44th, would push the Tide back in front thanks to her 6-0, 7-6(2) triumph at the top position over 46th-ranked Michaud, but 31st-ranked Dikosavljevic knotted the score up at 2-2 after battling past Daniell, the 41st-ranked player in the nation, by a score of 6-4, 6-4.
All three of the matches at the bottom half of the lineup would go three sets. At the fifth spot, Savva survived a back-and-forth affair against de Man to take the contest 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. The Tigers leveled the match one final time when Griffin held off junior Danielle Spielmann on court four by the slimmest of margins, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (6).
With the team score locked at 3-3, court six was deep into a final set as well. Turner won the first set against Dunn 6-2, but the Alabama sophomore came back to cruise through the second 6-0. The last frame had plenty of momentum shifts, with Turner eventually grabbing it at the end, 7-5.
Next up, the Tide returns home for matches against Florida and South Carolina. Alabama and the Gators will face off on Friday, April 8 at 5 p.m. CT before the Gamecocks come to Tuscaloosa for a contest on Sunday, April 10 at 1 p.m. CT.
Get all the latest information on the team by following AlabamaWTN on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
Players Mentioned
