No. 13 Auburn women’s tennis team achieved two shutout victories in a doubleheader on Saturday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center, defeating Arkansas 4-0 in its SEC home opener and Eastern Kentucky 7-0. The match against Arkansas drew 389 spectators, setting a new regular-season single-match attendance record for the program at the venue.
Auburn head coach Jordan Szabo commented on the day’s results: “Arkansas was a really big win for us. Every SEC win is big,” 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.”
In doubles play against Arkansas, Ekaterina Khairutdinova and Ashton Bowers secured a 6-0 victory at No. 3 doubles, marking their 15th dual-match doubles win this season. DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito followed by defeating Arkansas’ Carolina Gomez Alonso and Anet Koskel—ranked No. 25 nationally—by a score of 6-1 to clinch the doubles point.
During singles competition, Angella Okutoyi won her match over Koskel at No. 3 singles with scores of 6-1, 6-1 to give Auburn an early lead. On court one, Bennett defeated Gomez Alonso—ranked No. 19—with sets of 6-1, 6-2 to extend Auburn’s advantage to three points.
Ashton Bowers clinched the overall match by beating Alex Panagiotidou with identical set scores of 6-2.
In their second match of the day against Eastern Kentucky, Auburn again took control early by winning both completed doubles matches with shutout scores of 6-0 at No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
Alice Battesti, Bowers, and Esposito each recorded straight-set wins in singles play to secure victory for Auburn before additional straight-set wins from Merna Refaat and Eva Ionescu followed suit. Stefani Webb came back after dropping her first set to claim her match in a third-set tiebreaker.
With these results, Auburn improved its overall record to 18 wins and one loss this season while remaining undefeated at home (12-0) and perfect in conference play (3-0).
The Tigers will next travel to face Ole Miss on Thursday at Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center in Oxford, Mississippi.
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